Facebook Widens Probe Into Alleged Russian Interference in Brexit
January 17 2018 - 4:32PM
Dow Jones News
By Jenny Gross
LONDON -- Facebook Inc. said Wednesday that it was broadening
its investigation into whether Russia attempted to meddle in the
2016 referendum on Britain's membership in the European Union,
after its earlier probe found only a minimal amount of
activity.
In response to a request from a committee of U.K. lawmakers,
Facebook said it was looking to see whether there were coordinated
attempts at interference that it hadn't previously identified.
"We are committed to making all reasonable efforts to establish
whether or not there was coordinated activity similar to which was
found in the U.S. and will report back to you as soon as the work
has been completed, " Simon Milner, Facebook's U.K. policy
director, wrote in a letter to U.K. lawmaker Damian Collins. He
asked Britain to provide any relevant intelligence assessment to
Facebook.
Mr. Collins, a Conservative lawmaker who chairs a parliamentary
committee on media and culture, said he welcomed Facebook's
response after the company had previously resisted the committee's
calls to deepen its investigation. "Facebook has a responsibility.
They recognize the seriousness of the problem and that lots of
people, Parliaments and governments are really concerned about it,"
he said.
He added Facebook suggested its research will take a few
weeks.
The U.K. government has said it has found no evidence that
Russia successfully interfered in its democratic processes,
including the Brexit vote, and Russia denies any allegations. But
British lawmakers in recent months have called for the government
to report on the extent to which Moscow may have sought to
influence the Brexit referendum.
Mr. Collins said he believes there is a growing body of evidence
that Russia interfered in the referendum. His committee in October
asked Facebook, Twitter Inc. and other internet companies to
provide information about how the Russian government used social
media accounts to influence the Brexit vote and the 2017 election.
The request was part of an inquiry the committee is conducting on
fake news.
Write to Jenny Gross at jenny.gross@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 17, 2018 16:17 ET (21:17 GMT)
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