Mark Warner, the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee called Twitter’s presentation on the Russia-backed fake news campaign “deeply disappointing” in a statement to reporters on Thursday.
Representatives from Twitter met with the House and Senate intelligence committees on Tuesday to discuss Russia’s use of social media to meddle with the 2016 presidential election. The company said it “took action” against 201 accounts tied to a Russian troll farm — including 22 that were linked to Facebook’s recent fake news investigation.
“The notion that their work was basically derivative, based upon accounts that Facebook had identified, showed [an] enormous lack of understanding from the Twitter team of how serious this issue is, the threat it poses to democratic institutions, and again begs many more questions than they offered,” Warner said, according to CBS News.
“Of the roughly 450 accounts that Facebook recently shared as a part of their review, we concluded that 22 had corresponding accounts on Twitter,” Twitter said in a blog post about the meeting on Thursday, adding that many of the accounts had already been suspended.
Earlier this month, Facebook revealed nearly 500 accounts with Russian origins that spent upwards of $100,000 on fake ads before and after the 2016 election. Twitter has continued to be a go-to source for disinformation, with The New York Times reporting on Wednesday the platform “may have been used even more extensively than Facebook” in the Russian campaign.
“If there are ads that appear, pop up high on your Twitter newsfeed, Americans have the right to know if that’s being generated by interests from Americans or generated by interests from, by activities of foreign powers,” Warner said. “So again, [I’m] more than a little surprised, in light of all of the press interest in this subject over the last few week, how inadequate Twitter’s presentation was today.”
9 People #BlockedByTrump on Twitter, From Chrissy Teigen to Stephen King (Photos)
While Donald Trump likes to dole out criticism on Twitter, he certainly doesn't like to receive it. And lately, he's even blocking people for doing it. Here is the (growing) list of noteworthy people who have been #BlockedByTrump on his favorite social media platform.
Chrissy Teigen
After years of trolling him, this model finally got #BlockedByTrump in July 2017. Apparently, what broke POTUS' back wasn't being called a "twat;" it was being told, "lol no one likes you."
Stephen King The horror novelist and frequent Trump critic alerted fans in June 2017 that he had beed blocked by POTUS. Fortunately, King won't have to miss out: "Harry Potter" author J.K. Rowling offered to DM Trump tweets directly to him.
"Morning Joe" hosts Joe Scarborough and Mika Brzezinski President Trump didn't explicitly block Scarborough and Brzezinski, but he did unfollow them. The "Morning Joe" duo are politically conservative, but emerged as vocal Trump critics in late 2016.
MSNBC
Bess Kalb Trump blocked the "Jimmy Kimmel Live" writer after she hurled a few jokes at him. Afterward, Kalb tweeted that she was mortified yet unsurprised "that the leader of the free world could be so wounded by the gentle ribbing of a comedy writer." She also called Trump a "snowflake."
VoteVets Trump blocked the progressive veterans advocacy group after it harshly criticized his Muslim travel ban and his potential links with Russia. But VoteVets was unfazed, later tweeting, "The Commander in Chief can block @VoteVets, the voice of 500k military veterans and families, but we will NOT be silenced."
Twitter
Holly O'Reilly The musician/activist was probably #BlockedByTrump after tweeting a photo of him and an all-black-clad Melania with the caption, "Dress for the job you want. #widow," or calling him a "bloody idiot." O'Reilly claims Trump violated her constitutional rights by blocking her, and after it happened, told Time, "It's like FDR took my radio away."
Twitter
Andy Signore The Emmy-nominated writer was incensed after Trump took London Mayor Sadiq Khan's words out of context, then claimed Khan didn't care about the victims of the London terror attacks. So Signore slammed Trump on Twitter - and was blocked in return.
Twitter
John Niven The "Kill Your Friends" author is a #BlockedByTrump O.G; Trump blocked him sometime around November 9, 2016. Niven turned a screenshot of the block notification into a badge of honor, tweeting "I'm blocked on Twitter by the President of the United States. Strange days."
Twitter
Jimmy Smagula This actor was #BlockedByTrump, but not by first daughter Ivanka, a fact he used to his advantage after she tweeted a widely-mocked tribute to "my LGBT friends" at the start of Pride Month. "TELL YOUR A****** FATHER AND DO SOMETHING ABOUT IT" he said on June 2.
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The president has been increasingly busy curating who, and who cannot see him on his favorite social media platform
While Donald Trump likes to dole out criticism on Twitter, he certainly doesn't like to receive it. And lately, he's even blocking people for doing it. Here is the (growing) list of noteworthy people who have been #BlockedByTrump on his favorite social media platform.