Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer Chuck SchumerCruz blocks amended resolution honoring Ginsburg over language about her dying wish Senate Democrats introduce legislation to probe politicization of pandemic response Schumer interrupted during live briefing by heckler: 'Stop lying to the people' MORE (D-N.Y.) reportedly told Sen. Mark Warner Mark Robert WarnerDemocrats call for declassifying election threats after briefing by Trump officials It's time to upgrade benefits Intelligence chief says Congress will get some in-person election security briefings MORE (Va.), the top Democrat on the Intelligence Committee, to back off of investigating Facebook and its role in enabling Russia’s misinformation campaign in the U.S.

The New York Times reported on Wednesday in a story about Facebook’s internal response to controversies over data privacy and Russian election meddling that Schumer told Warner, who has been the tech platform’s chief antagonist on Capitol Hill, that he should be trying to cooperate with Facebook instead of scrutinizing it.

A Senate source familiar with the meeting between Schumer and Warner told The Hill that Schumer urged Warner to have the committee focus on issues related to disinformation and future election meddling.

The source said that Schumer was worried that Facebook may "bow to pressure from the right wing, who opposed Facebook’s purging of fake accounts and bots."

ADVERTISEMENT

The Times also reported that Facebook had mounted an intense lobbying campaign in Washington with COO Sheryl Sandburg taking on a personal role.

And when Sandburg testified before the Intelligence Committee on election interference this summer, Facebook’s lobbyists urged members not to ask her about data privacy or the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

"This has been a tough time at Facebook and our entire management team has been focused on tackling the issues we face,” a Facebook spokesperson said in response to the Times story. “While these are hard problems we are working hard to ensure that people find our products useful and that we protect our community from bad actors."