Rep. Adam Schiff said Thursday that social media companies need to be “good corporate citizens” to help Congress address fake ads.
“Some of this is going to be against their economic interests, but they’re going to have to be good corporate citizens, and we in Congress are going to have to do our oversight to make sure their policies are in the public interest,” Mr. Schiff, California Democrat, said on CNN.
Mr. Schiff, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, said that social media companies need to devote more resources to see how these types of ads get onto their platform, including changing their algorithm.
“The social media companies are going to have to do a far better job,” he said.
Mr. Schiff said that some organizations, like RT, could fall into both news and propaganda categories and make them tougher to regulate.
“They are a Kremlin-funded effort to get the Russian viewpoint out,” he said.
A CNN report from Wednesday said a number of the Russian-linked Facebook ads targeted Michigan and Wisconsin and were specific in the demographic they were trying to target. Both congressional investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller are investigating whether President Trump or his associates are associated with the ads or their distribution.
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