Virginia Sen. Mark Warner said he was hopeful the tech companies could identify not just the quantity of foreign-linked ads but also how they were deployed. | Alex Wong/Getty Images Senate asks tech giants to testify about Russian presence on their platforms Google, Twitter and Facebook face growing questions about foreign influence during the 2016 election.

Senate investigators are inviting Google, Twitter and Facebook to testify publicly on Nov. 1 about attempts by Russia to use digital platforms to influence last year’s presidential election, according to a Senate aide.

It was not immediately clear whether any of the companies would attend the Senate Intelligence Committee hearing. But they are facing intensifying questions about potential vulnerabilities that may have allowed Russian-linked users to buy ads, build armies of bots and manipulate news feeds to sway voters.


The House Intelligence Committee also announced Wednesday that it planned to hold a hearing of its own with tech companies in October but declined to identify which companies had been formally invited.

Facebook revealed this summer that ad buyers affiliated with the Russian government purchased at least 3,000 ads dealing with social and political causes during the 2016 presidential race. The company said last week it would provide copies of those ads to congressional investigators. Reports also attributed about $150,000 in social media ad spending to these Russia-linked accounts, a small fraction of total digital advertising the campaigns bought during the race.

POLITICO reported Wednesday that some of those ads specifically expressed support for Green Party candidate Jill Stein, Democratic contender Bernie Sanders and the election’s victor, now-President Donald Trump. Others dealt with issues like immigration and the Black Lives Matter movement.

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Virginia Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said he was hopeful the tech companies could identify not just the quantity of foreign-linked ads but also how they were deployed, as lawmakers seek to determine whether any American helped coordinate with them to target persuadable voters.

“How many fake accounts were created? How many stories were driven up your news feed because of these fake accounts?” the Virginia senator wondered. “Was there collaboration? There’s questions about — some of these stories pop up and then are there a series of alt-right or other feeds that may be promoting the same stories?”

Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.), an intelligence panel member, said in an interview he anticipated that the technology giants would shed more light on what executives say are internal steps already being taken to crack down on Russian disruption efforts.

“Best-case scenario, Facebook and Twitter actually engage in this,” Lankford said. “They already are watching for bots. They’ve got algorithms they are already targeting to be able to identify and get rid of them.”

The formal invitation to the three companies comes the week after Burr said he planned to seek public testimony from Facebook. Two days after Burr spoke, the company agreed to share with Congress details of thousands of Russian-purchased ads during the 2016 election. As of early afternoon Wednesday, Warner said he hadn’t yet seen the ads, though he anticipated their arrival.

The revelations have provided fuel for Warner and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Mich.), who are gathering support for legislation to force disclosure about the nature of paid social media ads to prevent potential foreign interference. They’re seeking Republican co-sponsors but so far haven’t announced any.

Lankford said he would “much prefer to” work with the companies on combating Russian influence as opposed to push for legislation, adding “that there’s no reason for the federal government to be involved in the social media, free-speech area.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday defended the role his social network played in last year’s election, saying the communication it facilitated among voters and candidates significantly outweighed the influence of Russian-backed ads.

“Campaigns spent hundreds of millions advertising online to get their messages out even further,” Zuckerberg wrote. “That’s 1000x more than any problematic ads we’ve found.”

His remarks were prompted by a Wednesday morning tweet in which President Donald Trump described Facebook as “always anti-Trump.” In the online missive, Zuckerberg also apologized for remarks he made shortly after the election, in which he said it was “crazy” to think that misinformation disseminated on Facebook could influence the outcome of the election.

Twitter is also slated to brief Senate Intelligence Committee officials Thursday in a private session.

Kyle Cheney and Elana Schor contributed to this report.

