Twitter Will Appear In Senate Hearings On Russian Election Hacking

Twitter is the latest tech company to be called up to Washington. The social networking service will appear in front of a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing next week amid continuing investigations into Russian interference during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, according to Wired.

The company’s talk will primarily focus on the use of bot accounts along with the spread of fake news on Twitter. In a statement, Twitter said it has remained open to working U.S. and government officials on public issues.

"Twitter engages with governments around the world on public policy issues of importance and of interest to policymakers,” the company said. “Twitter deeply respects the integrity of the election process, a cornerstone of all democracies, and will continue to strengthen our platform against bots and other forms of manipulation that violate our Terms of Service.”

For Twitter, the service has had regular struggles fighting against strategic misinformation campaigns. Initiatives from outside groups have often been able to use mass amounts of fake accounts to retweet and amplify stories or talking points on Twitter.

While Twitter has worked on automated tools to detect and weed out bots, the social media network’s public nature — especially compared to sites like Facebook — has made prevention a continuing work in progress. The New York Times documented this trend in a 2015 story:

The Columbian Chemicals hoax was not some simple prank by a bored sadist. It was a highly coordinated disinformation campaign, involving dozens of fake accounts that posted hundreds of tweets for hours, targeting a list of figures precisely chosen to generate maximum attention.

The perpetrators didn’t just doctor screenshots from CNN; they also created fully functional clones of the websites of Louisiana TV stations and newspapers. The YouTube video of the man watching TV had been tailor-made for the project. A Wikipedia page was even created for the Columbian Chemicals disaster, which cited the fake YouTube video. As the virtual assault unfolded, it was complemented by text messages to actual residents in St. Mary Parish. It must have taken a team of programmers and content producers to pull off.

Twitter has joined Facebook in being called up by U.S. officials over the continuing investigations into Russian election interference, as both companies have been the focus of lawmakers concerned over the tech industry’s oversight abilities. Facebook previously disclosed that Russian accounts had purchased more than $100,000 in ads during the run-up to last year’s election and in a live stream Thursday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg confirmed the company will hand these ads over to Congressional investigators.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) previously confirmed on CNN that the committee wanted to speak with both companies and also told Recode Thursday that he believes that “Russians actively used fake Twitter accounts” to amplify malicious propaganda