Facebook should have done more to brief officials about the fake pages and advertising placed by Russians during the 2016 presidential election, Rep. Jackie Speier said Tuesday.
Facebook should have done more to brief officials about the fake pages and advertising placed by Russians during the 2016 presidential election, Rep. Jackie Speier said Tuesday.
“Facebook is headquartered in my district,” the California Democrat, a member of the Intelligence and Armed Services committees told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” program .
“I see a lot of great things coming out of Facebook. I’m pretty disappointed by how unwilling they have been so far to work with us and to brief us on the issues relative to all of these fake Facebook pages.”
However, she said she’d say everyone is at fault, as back in 2015, The New York Times Magazine had a “huge spread” concerning an internet research agency in St. Petersburg, Russia, and “how 400 people every morning went in there and created Facebook pages and Twitter accounts” to spread both negative and positive commentary.
Facebook has agreed to provide Congress with all of the 3,000 ads paid for by Russians, and most likely the 470 identified fake Facebook pages, said Speier, but she’s sure there are many more false pages to come.
Facebook has for a long time denied that it’s a media company, but given its reach, Speier said she disagrees with that.
“Some 65 percent of Americans get their news from Facebook now,” she said. “Most adults are on Facebook. I think we’ve got to recognize that Facebook has morphed into a media enterprise.”
Speier said she also believes Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg would be “wise” to testify before Congress.
“I don’t know if he’s been called to testify by the Senate, and I don’t believe he has been by the House,” she said. “Right now we’re asking for documents. And after we receive the documents, then I think a determination will be made.”
