2016 ELECTION/CYBERWAR/POLITICS/RUSSIA: “Senators pressed representatives from three technology giants to explain why they didn’t recognize Russia-linked accounts earlier, as the officials struck a contrite tone about the role their services played in stoking political tensions during the 2016 campaign…
The officials also faced questions about voter-suppression efforts and whether Silicon Valley can or should police speech.
The tech companies emphasized that only a fraction of the total political content that appeared on their platforms had any links to foreign governments, particularly Russia, which the U.S. intelligence community determined in January ran a campaign of hacking and disinformation aimed at influencing the 2016 presidential election. They promised to take more responsibility for policing political content on their platforms in the future.
But the tech giants also disclosed that millions of users saw either paid or free election-related content during and after last year’s election across the platforms. Members of Congress peppered tech executives, especially Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch, with questions about their policies toward hate speech and terrorism, ad-targeting capabilities and how they manage their role in political discourse in the U.S. as well as in developing countries like Myanmar.”
-Byron Tau and Deepa Seetharaman, “Senators Press Tech Officials Over Missed Signs of Russia Influence,” The Wall Street Journal online, Oct. 31, 2017 06:39pm