Twitter admitted a small number of Russian accounts trying to influence the Brexit vote
According to wired media reports, on Thursday, Twitter said that its platform has a small part of the accounts associated with Russia have tried to affect the 2016 British Brexit vote. Learned that the information was disclosed by Nick Pickles, head of public policy and charitable affairs at Twitter’s UK subsidiary, at a public hearing in the British House of Commons.
Pickles said the company found a total of 49 accounts linked to the Russian Internet Institute (IRA), which issued a total of 942 tweets during the referendum. These tweets were forwarded 461 times and 637 liked.
It is understood that, in addition to Twitter, Google, Facebook representatives, and 11 British politicians also attended the public hearing held in Washington DC. The hearing is the first time the British House of Commons has met outside Britain. The 11 council members come from the Digital, Culture, Recreation, and Sports (DCMS) committee.
Fake news growth on social media platforms has been a hot topic throughout the year last year, and several surveys have shown that advertisements linked to Russia have affected the 2016 US presidential election. And last month, Twitter released news that Russia in its platform on the scope of the election more than expected. In this regard, British politicians hope that Twitter, Facebook, and other companies can also conduct their investigation of the referendum.
Simon Milner, head of policy at Facebook UK, made a commitment to the board that they will get the results by the end of the month. YouTube said Google did not find any Russian-funded ads affect British Brexit evidence, but they will conduct a further investigation of the matter.
Regardless of the company, they all expressed the false news that their fake news was unfavorable to their platform, at the same time they all deny that there was a profit. In addition, they also expressed their determination to fight against it, and in the course of their work, they will use a combination of manual and automated systems.
Source: wired
