Twitter faces Congress over Russian involvement in election

Sept. 28 (UPI) — Company officials from Twitter are set to appear before both the House and Senate intelligence committees on Thursday to answer questions about alleged Russian election meddling.

The Senate’s intelligence committee is expected to ask the company leaders whether disinformation, meant to disparage Democratic Party candidate Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign and spread by Russian accounts, ever entered legitimate Twitter news stories.

The panel may also ask if Twitter took any steps to curtail propaganda, and whether automated Twitter accounts were ever used to improve the Google rankings of false news items, Politico reported Thursday.

Facebook has similarly been questioned over its role in the campaign The closed-door meeting on Thursday comes as Facebook prepares to hand 3,000 advertisements related to Russian targeting of voters in the 2016 presidential election to special counsel Robert Mueller’s office.

Facebook, Twitter and Google were invited to open hearings before Congress in November regarding the investigation of Russia’s role in the election.

An unidentified former senior U.S. intelligence officer told Politico that Russian use of Twitter was similar to methods identified by intelligence agencies in which Russia hackers interfered with the election.

A Twitter spokesperson said the company was complying with congressional investigators and did not divulge what the company intends to tell the Senate committee.

Twitter has been relatively quiet, until Thursday, about the suspected use of its platform for election involvement. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the House committee’s ranking Democrat, said he would like to know exactly what the company has done to uncover Russian activity.

On Wednesday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg issued a retort to President Donald Trump’s suggestion that Facebook “was always anti-Trump.”

“Trump says Facebook is against him. Liberals say we helped Trump. Both sides are upset about ideas and content they don’t like. That’s what running a platform for all ideas looks like,” Zuckerberg said.