· *Facebook testified before Congress this week on its role in allowing Russia to spread propaganda during the 2016 presidential election. *· *CEO Mark Zuckerberg initially described the idea that Russia could influence the election as "crazy," but has since said he regrets saying that. *
· *Lawmakers have criticized Facebook for being too slow in addressing Russian propaganda and manipulation on its platform. *
--------------------Executives from Facebook, Twitter, and Google testified before Congress on Tuesday and Wednesday to explain their role in allowing Russian-backed bots, trolls, and advertisements to flood social media platforms during last year's presidential campaign.
In written testimony released prior to the first hearing, Facebook admitted that Russia-based operatives published about 80,000 posts online between June 2015 and August 2017 in an attempt to influence the presidential election. Those posts, Facebook said, may have reached as many as 126 million Americans.
"These actions run counter to Facebook's mission of building community and everything we stand for," Facebook General Counsel Colin Stretch said. "And we are determined to do everything we can to address this new threat."
In the weeks and months following the election, however, Facebook didn't appear to be as concerned. Here's how the social network's stance on Russian election meddling has evolved over time:
*SEE ALSO: Facebook thought about disclosing election manipulation by Russia in April, but waited until September*
*DON'T MISS: Facebook's top lawyer admitted they should have caught Russian ads earlier but said foreign currency isn't enough to act on*
-November 10, 2016: Mark Zuckerberg dismisses Russia's influence-
Just two days after voters elected President Donald Trump, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said there was only a "small amount" of fake news on his platform.
He also downplayed Facebook's role in influencing voters.
"To think it influenced the election in any way is a pretty crazy idea," he said. "I do think there is a certain profound lack of empathy in asserting that the only reason someone could have voted the way they did is they saw some fake news."-December 15, 2016: Zuckerberg announces plan to fight fake news-
Amid growing criticism, Facebook said it would partner with fact-checking organizations, including Snopes, ABC News, Politifact, and FactCheck.org, to combat fake news.
Some free speech activists worried that fact-checking wouldn't be applied equally to both sides of the political spectrum and that unpopular opinions could be suppressed.
"I understand how sensitive this is and I have instructed our team to proceed carefully and focus on fighting spam, not flagging opinions," Zuckerberg said. "For example, we're focused on obvious hoaxes with headlines like 'Michael Phelps just died of a heart attack' designed to get people to click on the stories and see ads."-January 6, 2017: US intelligence report concludes Russia interfered in the election-
A declassified intelligence report directly accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of ordering "an influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the US presidential election", and concluded that social media played a major role.
"Russia’s goals were to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency," the report said.
There was no immediate response from Facebook.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider Reported by Business Insider 4 hours ago.