Facebook Will Share Copies of Political Ads Purchased by Russian Sources With the US Congress (recode.net)

An anonymous reader shares a report: Facebook will turn over copies of political ads purchased by Russian sources to congressional lawmakers, who are investigating the country's potential interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Initially, Facebook had only released those ads -- 3,000 of them, valued at about $100,000 -- to Robert Mueller, the former FBI director who is spearheading the government's probe into Russia's actions. Facebook had withheld those details from House and Senate leaders, citing privacy concerns. But the move drew sharp rebukes from the likes of Sen. Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, who has charged in recent days that Facebook may not have done enough to scan its systems for potential Russian influence and to ensure that such foreign purchases -- otherwise illegal under U.S. law -- don't happen again. "After an extensive legal and policy review, today we are announcing that we will also share these ads with congressional investigators," wrote Colin Stretch, the company's general counsel. "We believe it is vitally important that government authorities have the information they need to deliver to the public a full assessment of what happened in the 2016 election."

Comments

Re:Why the hypocrisy?

[Archangel Michael]

1) I didn't vote for Trump. Never would have, never will.
2) It is clear that the Trump administration is better than Obama, but then again, that isn't saying much. After Trump, there won't be any Obama Legacy.
3) There will be no currency in a decade, it will all be digital or Crypto. Cash will be outlawed by Bernie who will need to tax everything to pay for all the "Free" things he tends to promise. Yes, I think he'll likely win in 3 years. We'll be just like Venezuela in 10 years. Its either Bernie or Al Franken and Jill Stein, running as "Franken/Stein 2020"

Re:Mark Zuckerberg

[Boronx]

Support for Trump is a first order indicator that you're unable to think for yourself, unless you're alt-right or rich.

"in reality, this russia probe is just the visible death pangs and hysteria of a mono cultural elite"

In reality, various Russian state organizations spent a lot of money to influence the US election and probably succeeded. Member of the Trump Campaign and Administration including the president himself, have repeatedly lied about their involvement with these efforts, and Trump has protected them and even gone so far as to try to shut down the investigation.

Facebook, for its part, has already lied about their role. They actively helped the Trump campaign target their audience, a service they provide for all high-dollar advertisers.