Senate Intelligence Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., attempted to puncture narratives about how Russian-linked social media accounts might have influenced the 2016 elections, pointing to specifics about some electoral swing states and comparing them to ‘safe’ states.
“A lot of folks, including many in the media, have tried to reduce this entire conversation to one premise: foreign actors conducted a surgical executed covert operation to help elect a United States president,” Burr said in his opening statement at a hearing Wednesday. “I’m here to tell you, this story does not simplify that easily.”
“What you haven’t heard is that almost five times more ads were targeted at the state of Maryland than of Wisconsin. Maryland which is targeted by 262 ads, in comparison to Wisconsin’s 55 ads, wasn’t up for grabs; it was a state the Democratic candidate carried by 26 percent.”
Among a handful of other comparisons, Burr also pointed out that of the 55 ads in Wisconsin, most of them ran prior to the primary in that state, so at that point in time they couldn’t have simply been supporting candidate Trump over candidate Clinton.
The chairman said the media had failed to point out how much of the spending on ads came before the state’s primaries were concluded in stories about Russian social media efforts.
At the same time, Burr also called the ability for foreign actors to use social media platforms to spread propaganda an “unacceptable risk,” pointing out 60 percent of Americans use Facebook, and saying if foreign actors can use that platform freely to distribute political news or propaganda it “is as much a public policy issue as it is a national security concern.”
The Wednesday hearing with the social media giants of Facebook, Twitter, and Google has been highly anticipated for almost three weeks.
