Our Committee has invested a significant amount of time, focus and energy – both in public and behind closed doors – in uncovering and exposing Russian information warfare in our own backyard.
-
-
Show this thread
-
It was pressure brought to bear by the Intel Committee that led Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to uncover malicious activity by the Russian-backed Internet Research Agency.
Show this thread -
These revelations eventually resulted in the indictments of 13 Russian individuals and 3 Russian companies by the Special Counsel’s office in February 2018.
Show this thread -
We have helped reveal the Russian playbook. We have raised public awareness regarding the threat. And we’ve succeeded, however incrementally, in pressuring the social media companies to take steps to address the problems on their platforms.
Show this thread -
That’s the good news. The bad news is that we have a lot more work to do.
Show this thread -
Russian active measures on social media have two things in common: They are effective. And they are cheap. For just pennies on the dollar, they can wreak havoc in our society and in our elections.
Show this thread -
Much of the initial focus was on paid advertisements. But it quickly became clear that ads represented a tiny percentage of IRA activity – compared to the hundreds of thousands of free Facebook and Instagram posts, pages & groups, and millions of tweets from IRA-backed accounts.
Show this thread -
Today, it is becoming clearer that activity represents just a small fraction of the total Russian effort on social media.
Show this thread -
I’m also concerned that the U.S. government is not well positioned to detect, track, or counter these types of influence operations on social media.
Show this thread -
But all the evidence the Senate Intelligence Committee has seen to date suggests that the platform companies – namely, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, and YouTube – still have a lot of work to do.
Show this thread -
Before I went into public service, I spent more than 20 years in the tech business. I have tremendous respect for these companies and what they represent. When they are at their best, they are a symbol of what this country does best: innovation, job creation, changing the world.
Show this thread -
I’ve been hard on them because I know they can do better to protect our democracy. They have the creativity, expertise, resources, and technological capability to get ahead of these malicious actors.
Show this thread -
That’s why we will be hosting senior executives from Facebook, Twitter, and Google for a hearing on September 5th. To hear the plans they have in place, to press them to do more, and to work together to address this challenge.
Show this thread -
Today we focused on what happened in 2016 and what is happening now, but Russian active measures have revealed a dark underbelly of the social media ecosystem.
Show this thread -
These same tools that spread misinformation can negatively affect other aspects of our lives. I think we need to start pushing ourselves beyond just recognizing the problem and start to push actual policy ideas forward.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Good. But Americans have right to know NOW if high levels of govt are compromised by foreign state, based on info from IC. If your Committee can't be forthcoming, then we need panel led by exPresidents, an Oracle of Presidents, to tell us if we have a NatSec emergency
-
I think it's safe to assume at this point that yes higher levels of gov't are compromised right to the Oval Office.
-
You and I know it but there are many who need a little jolt.
- 1 more reply
New conversation -
-
-
I voted in Virginia primary in June. This morning I checked http://Vote.org and was NOT registered to vote! Everyone needs to check. Everyone needs to register.
- 1 more reply
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.