Facebook to Turn Over Russian-Linked Ads to Congress<br />Mr. Warner and Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat of Minnesota, circulated a letter inviting colleagues to co-sponsor a bill<br />that would require greater transparency for online political ads, according to a copy of the letter seen by .<br />This week, Congressional Democrats asked the Federal Election Commission to advise on ways to prevent illicit<br />foreign influence on American elections via social media, including possible new laws or regulations.<br />Though most public attention has been focused on whether the Trump campaign helped with the Russian hacking, leaking<br />and other intrusions, the special counsel’s assignment is “a full and thorough investigation of the Russian government’s efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election<br />The illicit Russian exploitation of social media fits squarely into Mr. Mueller’s wide-ranging investigation,<br />and the companies said they have fully cooperated with his requests for detailed data.<br />The company faced calls for greater transparency about 470 Russia-linked accounts — in which fictional people posed<br />as American activists — which were taken down after they had promoted inflammatory messages on divisive issues.<br />Mr. Warner said he believed the 3,000 ads, which the committees had not yet received, should be made<br />public with protections for the privacy of any innocent people whose names may be in the material.<br />“We are looking into foreign actors, including additional Russian groups and other former Soviet states,” he said.<br />The disclosure of the ads also raised the possibility of future regulation of political advertising on social media platforms.
