Top Democrat blasts Twitter: Presentation to congressional Russia investigators 'inadequate on almost every level'

pulse

September 28, 2017 9:15 PM

"Their actions have not matched their words in terms of grasping the seriousness of the threat, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia said Thursday.

Sen. Mark Warner, the Democratic ranking member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, on Thursday criticized a presentation Twitter gave as "inadequate" and "deeply disappointing."

Twitter representatives met with congressional Russia investigators in a closed meeting on Thursday. The meeting reportedly covered how Russian-backed Twitter accounts may have influenced the 2016 election.

After the meeting, Warner addressed a group of reporters, saying that Twitter's actions at the meeting "either shows an unwillingness to take this threat seriously or a complete lack of a fulsome effort."

"Their actions have not matched their words in terms of grasping the seriousness of the threat," Warner said.

The Virginia senator did not rule out issuing subpoenas to Twitter.

At the meeting, Twitter told investigators it found 201 fake accounts linked to the same Russian actors that Facebook previously disclosed, the company said in a blog post.

In his comments after the meeting, Warner called Twitter's reliance on Facebook's report an "enormous lack of understanding" about the seriousness of the issue.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has summoned Facebook, Google, and Twitter to testify at a public hearing November 1 about Russia's use of social media to influence US elections.

In addition to increased scrutiny from Congressional investigators, Facebook and Twitter are becoming a "red hot" focus of special prosecutor Robert Mueller's Russia probe. And the full extent of Russia's use of social media to influence Americans' voting choices is just beginning to emerge.

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