MPs are stepping up their inquiry into fake news in an effort to extract answers from Facebook and Twitter about the extent of Russian interference in last year’s EU referendum and this year’s UK general election. Russian entities are known to have bought adverts on Facebook and generated election-related content before Donald Trump won last year’s US presidential election, while authorities in France and Germany have said their elections were also targeted.
Damian Collins, the Conservative MP who chairs the Commons digital, culture, media and sport select committee, wrote to Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, last month requesting evidence about ads related to the Brexit campaign and general election that had been bought by Russian accounts. He also asked for details on the number of times such ads were viewed and shared. He sent a similar request to Jack Dorsey, Twitter chief executive.
The information requested is in line with Facebook’s revelation before a Senate committee that 150m Americans saw political content published by Russian entities in the two years before the 2016 US presidential election.
Full Article: UK to step up investigation into big tech’s Russia ties.