Facebook To Hand Over Russian Ads: We Don’t Want Anyone Using Us To Undermine Democracy [VIDEO]

The New York Times reports:



Under growing public pressure to reveal more about the spread of covert Russian propaganda on its site, Facebook said on Thursday that it was turning over more than 3,000 Russia-linked ads to Congressional committees investigating the Kremlin’s influence operation during the 2016 presidential election.

“I care deeply about the democratic process and protecting its integrity,” Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, said during an appearance on Facebook Live, the company’s video service. He added that he did not want anyone “to use our tools to undermine democracy.” “That’s not what we stand for,” he said.

The announcement that Facebook would share the ads with the Senate and House intelligence committees came after the company spent two weeks facing calls for greater transparency about the 470 Russia-linked accounts that it took down after they had promoted inflammatory messages on divisive issues.