SOCIAL media giant Twitter will visit Capitol Hill during Congress investigations into Russian interference in the 2016 US election.
Twitter’s closed-door meetings with staff yesterday follow similar briefings from Facebook earlier this month and the House of Representatives and Senate panels have invited both tech giants, along with Google, to appear at autumn public hearings.
The committees are scrutinising the spread of false news stories and propaganda on social media, to what extent Russia was involved and whether anyone in the US helped target those stories. Unlike Facebook, which has said fake accounts on its platform attempted to stir up divisiveness in the election, Twitter has remained mostly silent.
The two social media companies have different types of platforms, as Twitter allows users to register anonymously and has more public accounts than Facebook.
Many politicians have expressed concern about the proliferation of anonymous “bots” on Twitter and their potential to spread misinformation.
Virginia senator Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate intelligence panel, said he hoped Twitter would be forthcoming.
“They don’t deny they have allowed more anonymity.
“So they’ve got a different business model, we’ve got different questions for them,” said Warner.
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