Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google yesterday headed before US lawmakers for two days of grueling hearings on how Russia allegedly used their services to try to sway last year’s US presidential election.
At stake for the Silicon Valley companies are their public images and the threat of tougher advertising regulations in the US, where the technology sector has grown accustomed to light treatment from the government.
Facebook, the world’s largest social network, on Monday added fuel to the debate when it told US Congress in written testimony that 126 million Americans could have seen politically divisive posts that originated in Russia under fake names.
Photo: AFP
That is in addition to 3,000 US political ads that Facebook says Russians bought on its platform.
Google and Twitter have also said that people in Russia used their services to spread messages in the run-up to last year’s election.
The Russian government has denied it intended to influence the election, in which US President Donald Trump, a Republican, defeated Democratic Party candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton.
US lawmakers have responded angrily to the idea of foreign meddling, introducing legislation to require online platforms to say who is running election ads and what audiences are targeted.
“The companies need to get ahead of the curve here,” Center for Strategic and International Studies senior vice president James Lewis said.
If they can, he added, they might avoid regulation.
Lewis, speaking during the Reuters Cyber Summit in Washington, said he expects European officials to watch the US hearings closely.
Facebook and Twitter are dispatching their general counsels, Colin Stretch and Sean Edgett, to appear before the Senate subcommittee, while Google is sending director of law enforcement and information security Richard Salgado.
“Our goal is to bring people closer together; what we saw from these actors was an insidious attempt to drive people apart and we’re determined to prevent it from happening again,” Stretch was set to tell lawmakers, according to an advance copy of his remarks.
Facebook and Twitter have taken steps toward self-regulation, saying they would create their own public archives of election-related ads and also apply more specific labels to such ads.
Google followed, saying it would create a database of election ads, including ones on YouTube.
The companies have also disclosed new details about the extent of Russia-based material, raising alarms about a sector that once inspired idealism.
“The Internet was seen as a great engine for promoting democracy and transparency. Now we are all discovering that it can also be a tool for hijacking democracy,” Council on Foreign Relations senior fellow for digital policy Karen Kornbluh said.
NO-LIMITS PARTNERSHIP: ‘The bottom line’ is that if the US were to have a conflict with China or Russia it would likely open up a second front with the other, a US senator said Beijing and Moscow could cooperate in a conflict over Taiwan, the top US intelligence chief told the US Senate this week. “We see China and Russia, for the first time, exercising together in relation to Taiwan and recognizing that this is a place where China definitely wants Russia to be working with them, and we see no reason why they wouldn’t,” US Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines told a US Senate Committee on Armed Services hearing on Thursday. US Senator Mike Rounds asked Haines about such a potential scenario. He also asked US Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lieutenant General Jeffrey Kruse
INSPIRING: Taiwan has been a model in the Asia-Pacific region with its democratic transition, free and fair elections and open society, the vice president-elect said Taiwan can play a leadership role in the Asia-Pacific region, vice president-elect Hsiao Bi-khim (蕭美琴) told a forum in Taipei yesterday, highlighting the nation’s resilience in the face of geopolitical challenges. “Not only can Taiwan help, but Taiwan can lead ... not only can Taiwan play a leadership role, but Taiwan’s leadership is important to the world,” Hsiao told the annual forum hosted by the Center for Asia-Pacific Resilience and Innovation think tank. Hsiao thanked Taiwan’s international friends for their long-term support, citing the example of US President Joe Biden last month signing into law a bill to provide aid to Taiwan,
China’s intrusive and territorial claims in the Indo-Pacific region are “illegal, coercive, aggressive and deceptive,” new US Indo-Pacific Commander Admiral Samuel Paparo said on Friday, adding that he would continue working with allies and partners to keep the area free and open. Paparo made the remarks at a change-of-command ceremony at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam in Hawaii, where he took over the command from Admiral John Aquilino. “Our world faces a complex problem set in the troubling actions of the People’s Republic of China [PRC] and its rapid buildup of forces. We must be ready to answer the PRC’s increasingly intrusive and
STATE OF THE NATION: The legislature should invite the president to deliver an address every year, the TPP said, adding that Lai should also have to answer legislators’ questions The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday proposed inviting president-elect William Lai (賴清德) to make a historic first state of the nation address at the legislature following his inauguration on May 20. Lai is expected to face many domestic and international challenges, and should clarify his intended policies with the public’s representatives, KMT caucus secretary-general Hung Meng-kai (洪孟楷) said when making the proposal at a meeting of the legislature’s Procedure Committee. The committee voted to add the item to the agenda for Friday, along with another similar proposal put forward by the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP). The invitation is in line with Article 15-2