Facebook has told the Government’s fake news inquiry it will expand its investigation into whether Russian agents attempted to influence the Brexit vote.
The social media giant previously said it found just three Brexit-related ads linked to the Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA), and they were viewed by just 200 people.
But MP Damian Collins, chairman of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, responded by accusing Facebook of not properly investigating alleged Russian meddling.
Today, he revealed the company is now expanding its probe to look for other ‘coordinated activity around the Brexit referendum’.
The EU referendum was an political earthquake in British politics. Facebook have today announced they are expanding their probe into alleged Russian meddling the campaign
Simon Milner, Facebook’s UK policy director, wrote to the committee: ‘You expressed a view that there may be other similar co-ordinated activity from Russia that we had not yet identified through our investigation and asked us to continue our investigatory work.
‘We have considered your request and can confirm that our investigatory team is now looking to see if we can identify other similar clusters engaged in co-ordinated activity around the Brexit referendum that was not identified previously.
‘This work requires detailed analysis of historic data by our security experts, who are also engaged in preventing live threats to our service.
‘We are committed to making all reasonable efforts to establish whether or not there was co-ordinated activity similar to that which was found in the US and will report back to you as soon as the work has been completed.’
Mr Collins said today: ‘I welcome the fact that Facebook have now responded to the committee’s request for information regarding the abuse of their platform during the Brexit Referendum. I look forward to reviewing their findings.’
Some have claimed Russia used the social network to influence the EU referendum
Theresa May has previously accused Russia of spreading fake news and misinformation online as part of a campaign to ‘sow discord in the West’.
But Facebook’s previously statement on the matter had cast doubt over assertions by pro Remain MPs that Moscow-based propaganda groups were trying to sway the vote by posting ads online.
It follows an investigation in the US earlier this year which ruled hundreds of Russia-linked Facebook accounts had attempted to influence the US presidential election.
Investigating that issue, Facebook found approximately 470 accounts linked to the Internet Research Agency agency had spent around 100,000 dollars (£75,000) on more than 3,000 adverts.