Announcement Comes the Day Before Facebook Will Testify at Hearing of the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism
WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee, today released the following statement on Facebook’s announcement that 126 million Americans were exposed to approximately 80,000 posts by Russian operatives from June 2015 to August 2017. On Tuesday, representatives from Facebook, Twitter, and Google are scheduled to testify before the Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on Crime and Terrorism.
In mid-October, Klobuchar introduced the Honest Ads Act with U.S. Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), Vice Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, and U.S. Senator John McCain (R-AZ), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, to help prevent foreign interference in future elections and improve the transparency of online political advertisements.
“Every day we get more information that shows how Russians took advantage of our laws and used online ads to divide Americans and influence our election. Today, we learned that about 126 million Americans were exposed to Facebook posts by Russian operatives surrounding the last election—that’s over 90 percent of the total number of people who voted,” Senator Klobuchar said. “We need transparency and accountability in online political advertising - which is what I plan on telling these online platforms in tomorrow’s Judiciary hearing. It’s clearer than ever that Congress should pass my bipartisan Honest Ads Act to ensure all major online platforms are held to the same standards in place as broadcasters—including advertisements for issues of national legislative importance.”
As Ranking Member of the Senate Rules Committee with oversight jurisdiction over federal elections, Klobuchar has introduced legislation to improve the security of U.S. election systems and make commonsense improvements to election administration. She and Senator Roy Blunt (R-MO) introduced the bipartisan Stop Foreign Donations Affecting Our Elections Act to strengthen disclosure by requiring federal campaigns to use existing credit card verification protocols to help verify that online credit card donations come from U.S. sources. Klobuchar and Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also introduced bipartisan legislation to help states block cyber-attacks, secure voter registration logs and voter data, upgrade election auditing procedures, and create secure and useful information sharing about threats. In June, Klobuchar introduced the Helping State and Local Governments Prevent Cyber Attacks Act to help combat foreign interference by providing state and local governments with the information and resources they need to keep our elections secure and improve voter confidence.
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