WASHINGTON \u2014 Exasperated U.S. senators harshly criticized representatives of Facebook, Twitter and Google at a hearing Tuesday for not doing more to prevent Russian agents interfering with the American political process as early as 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At one point, Sen. Al Franken shook his head after he couldn\u2019t get all the companies to commit to not accepting political ads bought with North Korean currency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hearing by a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary panel was moved last week into a cavernous hearing room usually reserved for high-profile events like Supreme Court confirmations. About 50 people waited to get in as senators fired pointed questions and waved at cardboard displays of outrageous ads.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople are buying ads on your platform with rubles. They are political ads,\u201d Franken fumed. \u201cYou put billions of data points together all the time. … Google has all knowledge that man has ever developed. You can\u2019t put together rubles with a political ad and go like, \u2018Hmmm, those data points spell out something pretty bad?\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Technology company representatives fumbled at points. After Franken pointed out foreign spending on U.S. political campaigns is illegal, Google\u2019s director of law enforcement and information security, Richard Salgado, replied only that the search giant would refuse political ads paid with foreign currency \u201cif it\u2019s a good enough signal on illegality.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn hindsight, we should have had a broader lens,\u201d said Facebook\u2019s general counsel, Colin Stretch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The companies all pledged to do more and politely said they understood the seriousness with which lawmakers are taking the question of Russian meddling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
PRESSURED TO SUPPORT LEGISLATION<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sen. Amy Klobuchar pressured the representatives to support her \u201cHonest Ads\u201d bill, which she is co-sponsoring with Sen. Mark Warner and Sen. John McCain, and which would bring political ad rules from TV, radio and print to the internet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She dismissed pledges from the companies this week to be more transparent about political ads as an unenforceable \u201cpatchwork\u201d of self-policing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not waiting for legislation,\u201d said Stretch, before Klobuchar cut him off and repeated her demand for a yes or no answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe stand ready to work with you and your co-sponsors on that legislation going forward,\u201d Stretch replied, echoed by Twitter\u2019s and Google\u2019s representatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Louisiana Sen. John Kennedy browbeat Stretch into admitting that Facebook had no way of knowing the true identity of all of the 5 million advertisers that use its platform every month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOf course, the answer is no,\u201d Stretch said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
INVESTIGATIONS HEATING UP<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The hearing \u2014 the first of three this week in which the three tech giants face a public grilling \u2014 comes amid the increasing pace of investigations into the Trump administration\u2019s possible link to Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Court papers unsealed Monday revealed an indictment against President Donald Trump\u2019s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and a guilty plea by another adviser, who admitted to lying to the FBI about meetings with Russian intermediaries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just five of the full committee\u2019s 11 Republicans attended the Senate subcommittee hearing, while all nine Democrats showed up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Wednesday, representatives of all three companies face hearings by the House and Senate intelligence committees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MASSIVE REACH<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In preparation for Tuesday\u2019s hearing, Facebook disclosed that content generated by Russia\u2019s infamous troll farm, the Internet Research Agency, potentially reached as many as 126 million users.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The company said IRA-linked accounts generated 80,000 posts on 120 pages between January 2015 and August 2017. Possible views reached the millions after people liked the posts and shared them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Facebook had earlier turned over more than 3,000 advertisements linked to the agency. The ads \u2014 many of which focused on divisive social issues like immigration and gay rights \u2014 pointed people to the agency\u2019s pages, where they could then like or share its material.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Twitter said it uncovered and shut down 2,752 accounts linked to the IRA, nearly 14 times as many as it handed over to congressional committees three weeks ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russia-linked accounts put out 1.4 million election-related tweets from September through Nov. 15 last year \u2014 nearly half of them automated. The company also found nine Russian accounts that bought ads, most of which came from the state-backed news service RT, previously known as Russia Today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And Google said it found evidence of \u201climited\u201d misuse of its services by the Russian group, as well as some YouTube channels that were likely backed by Russian agents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Google said two accounts linked to the Russian group spent $4,700 on ads on its platforms during the 2016 election. The company also found 18 YouTube channels likely backed by Russian agents. Those channels hosted 1,108 videos with 43 hours of material, although they racked up just 309,000 views in the U.S. between June 2015 and November 2016, Google said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MISLEADING ADS REVEALED<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sen. Richard Blumenthal revealed some of the ads taken out by Russians, including one that showed comedian Aziz Ansari holding up a sign that said \u201cSave time, avoid the line, vote from home,\u201d a message that falsely suggested voters could cast ballots by text message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another Twitter post urged voters to text \u201cHillary\u201d to 59925 to cast their vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Blumenthal pressed Twitter\u2019s acting general counsel Sean Edgett to commit to researching how many voters may have been misled into incorrectly believing they had voted because of the posts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nakashima reported from San Francisco. Barbara Ortutay in New York, Michael Liedtke in San Francisco and Mary Clare Jalonick in Washington contributed to this story.<\/i><\/p>\n\n\n\n
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