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Facebook and Twitter to share info about possible Russian meddling in UK politics
Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. will provide information to the U.K. government to determine if Russian-backed organizations used the Internet to spread misinformation relating to the vote on Brexit.
The companies agreed to provide the information following a request by the U.K.’s head of digital, culture, media and sport committee, Damian Collins. The request was in regards to Brexit and the spread of what’s now become known as fake news.
.@CommonsCMS has today published the responses from Facebook and Twitter to my request for information regarding Russia’s disinformation campaign in the United Kingdom as part of our Fake News Inquiry. See the letters here: https://t.co/FpGq34KXdM https://t.co/nkUoArcHri
— Damian Collins (@DamianCollins) November 28, 2017
Facebook, which came under scrutiny after it revealed millions of Americans were exposed to Russian-based propaganda on its platform, has said it will be ready to provide the information sometime in December. Facebook’s senior public policy representative in the U.K., Simon Milner, also said that Facebook would “remain committed to assisting your committee’s wider inquiry into ‘fake news.’” Twitter said it will have something to show “in the coming weeks.”
In an interview, Collins expressed his concern over fake news, but also added that Russia’s Internet Research Agency was likely not working alone in Russia and that other governments around the world may have their own propaganda units disseminating news and trolling.
“I think we have a right to know what was going on,” Collins said. “Some of the activity took place directly before the referendum and certainly during the campaign. That’s why I wrote to Mark Zuckerberg asking for Facebook to give us the information about Russian-backed activity on their platform.”
Earlier in November, researchers at the University of Edinburgh revealed that the Russian IRA was responsible for creating 419 accounts on Twitter related to influencing U.K. politics. Researchers found that 3,468 tweets came from such accounts concerning the Brexit vote, but most were posted after the result of the referendum.
Another account was revealed to have fomented anti-Islamic sentiment in the country. The point of such an account, the U.K. government believes, is to divide society and sow the seeds of destabilization.
Image: LoboStudioHamburg via Pixabay
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