Twitter to talk to House, Senate in Russia probe

WASHINGTON (AP) — Social media giant Twitter will visit Capitol Hill as part of the House and Senate investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 elections.

Twitter’s closed-door meetings Thursday with staff follow similar briefings from Facebook earlier this month, and the House and Senate panels have invited both tech giants, along with Google, to appear at public hearings. The committees are scrutinizing the spread of false news stories and propaganda on social media, to what extent Russia was involved and whether anyone in the United States helped target those stories.

Unlike Facebook, which has said phony accounts on its platform attempted to stir up divisiveness in the election, Twitter has remained mostly silent. Many lawmakers have expressed concerns about the proliferation of anonymous “bots” on Twitter and their potential to spread misinformation.