Russian President Vladimir Putin has raised concerns about the role of social media in the 2018 Kremlin race as Moscow continues to come under fire for allegedly using platforms including Facebook and Twitter to meddle in last year’s White House contest.
“We need to look carefully at how some companies work in internet, in social media, and how widely they are involved in our domestic political life,” Mr. Putin told Russian lawmakers Monday, Reuters reported.
“It should be carefully analyzed how they are operating and will be operating during the presidential election,” Mr. Putin added, Reuters reported.
Mr. Putin did not specify what sorts of companies he was concerned with, Reuters reported, though Russian outlets including both the state-run TASS newswire and Moscow’s Vedomosti newspaper said the president was worried specifically about foreign firms.
The Russian president made the remarks during a meeting with the leadership of the chambers of the Federal Assembly, Vedomosti reported Monday, nearly a year after U.S. intelligence officials publicly accused Mr. Putin of using the internet to interfere to meddle in the 2016 White House race.
“We assess Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the U.S. presidential election,” the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence concluded in January.
“Moscow’s influence campaign followed a Russian messaging strategy that blends covert intelligence operations — such as cyber activity — with overt efforts by Russian Government agencies, state-funded media, third-party intermediaries and paid social media users or ’trolls,’” the ODNI said in a Jan. 6 report.
Along with waging cyberattacks targeting Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, Russian operatives have been accused of conducting operations across platforms including Facebook and Twitter meant to boost her opponent, President Trump,
Nearly a year later, Facebook has continued to take steps toward addressing Russia’s alleged meddling. On Friday, the social network debuted a feature that lets users see if they followed any accounts and pages linked to the Internet Research Agency, a Moscow-based “troll farm” implicated in the interference campaign.
The Internet Research Agency purchased more than 3,000 ads targeting Facebook users between 2015 and 2017, according to the social network, and details about those efforts have been provided to federal investigators probing Russia’s role in the 2016 race.
“We are taking action to be more transparent about the foreign interference in the 2016 U.S. Elections. We’ve taken down fake accounts and Pages by the Internet Research Agency and have shared this information with Congress,” Facebook said Friday.
Over 126 million Facebook users saw the Russian troll farm’s content, according to Facebook, and similar campaigns conducted on platforms like Instagram and Twitter resulted in repeated engagements from President Trump’s relatives and his former national security adviser, Gen. Michael Flynn, among others.
Four congressional committees and special counsel Robert Mueller’s office are currently investigating Russia’s role in the 2016 election, and Mr. Mueller’s office has brought criminals charges against four individuals associated with Mr. Trump’s campaign, including Mr. Flynn. He pleaded guilty this month to lying to federal investigators and has agreed to cooperate with the special counsel’s probe, according to court filings.
Moscow has denied interfering in Mr. Trump’s election, and Mr. Putin previously said that blaming Russia was “basically a way of manipulating public opinion.”
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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