Analysts say Facebook, Twitter, and Google provided incomplete data and insights on the Internet Research Agency and what happened in the 2016 election.
Twitter, Facebook, and Google have been less than eager to help the Senate Intelligence Committee with its investigation into Russian interference on their platforms, providing incomplete data or otherwise insufficient information for analysts to completely figure out what happened.
On Monday, the committee released two reports outlining how the Internet Research Agency, the Russian troll factory behind the country’s online misinformation campaign, attempted to influence US politics and sow division before and after the 2016 election. The reports provide insights into multiple facets of the IRA’s activities, such as how it used Instagram and specifically sought to target black voters. But it also criticized the tech companies that Russians leveraged for falling short when it came time to deliver information to help investigators figure out what went on.
According to New Knowledge, a cybersecurity company based in Austin, Texas, that produced one of the reports, Twitter, Facebook, and Google “did the bare minimum possible” to meet the Senate committee’s requests.
Oxford University’s Computational Propaganda Project, which put together the other report, was not as blatant in its criticism but also emphasized a need for sharing data about public problems to be “more than performative.”
The criticisms are part of an expanding narrative around the way social media companies are approaching the often dim effects of their platforms: They make a public show of apology and efforts to improve, while in the background dragging their feet and failing to take the issues surrounding them seriously.
According to New Knowledge’s report, the IRA’s misinformation operation reached 126 million people on Facebook, at least 20 million people on Instagram, and 1.4 million Twitter users, and uploaded upward of 1,000 videos to YouTube, which Google owns. Those conclusions are based on a data set that included 10.4 million tweets, 1,100 YouTube channels, 116,000 Instagram posts, and 61,500 Facebook posts, which combined saw tens of millions of engagements.
But the report suggests these findings are incomplete because none of the companies turned over as much as they could.
