Russia’s attempts to sway American voters through Facebook are a “red-hot” focus of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into the election and possible links to President Trump’s campaign, a new report said Wednesday.
Prosecutors and FBI agents on Mueller’s staff are zeroing in on how Russia spread fake and damaging information through social media and are seeking more evidence from Facebook and Twitter about what happened on their networks, Bloomberg reported, citing US officials familiar with the probe.
Agencies including the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and FBI are studying what can be done to prevent interference and espionage in future elections, starting with the 2018 midterm congressional vote, one official told the news service.
At the same time, Russia is ramping up its hacking operations, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats said.
“Russia has clearly assumed an even more aggressive cyber posture by increasing cyber espionage operations and leaking data stolen from those operations,” Coats said Wednesday at the Billington Cybersecurity Summit in Washington.
Mueller’s office declined to comment.
The focus of Mueller’s probe comes as the Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee, which is conducting its own investigation, say social-media companies including Facebook have to be more forthcoming about what they saw occurring on their platforms last year and how they have responded.
Facebook said last week it found about $100,000 in ad spending connected to fake accounts run from Russia.
That followed an April report by the company that outlined coordinated campaigns to misinform the public.
Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr (R-NC) said Tuesday that it’s “probably more a question of when” than if there will be a hearing with Facebook officials as part of his panel’s probe.
Mark Warner, the committee’s top Democrat and a former telecommunications company founder, said Facebook’s revelation appears to be “the tip of the iceberg. I think there’s going to be much more.”
“This is the Wild, Wild West,” Warner said.
Trump said he did not believe US intelligence agencies’ conclusion that Russia interfered in the election, repeatedly calling the feds’ probe a “witch hunt,” “fake news” and “a hoax” promoted by Democratic sore losers.
With Bloomberg