In a Facebook Live announcement Thursday afternoon, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company decided to reverse its initial decision to withhold the online political ads purchased by a Russian firm during the U.S. presidential election. In a blog post, their general counsel Colin Stretch writes:
After an extensive legal and policy review, today we are announcing that we will also share these ads with congressional investigators. We believe it is vitally important that government authorities have the information they need to deliver to the public a full assessment of what happened in the 2016 election. That is an assessment that can be made only by investigators with access to classified intelligence and information from all relevant companies and industries — and we want to do our part. Congress is best placed to use the information we and others provide to inform the public comprehensively and completely.
This is a great step in the right direction, but not everyone is satisfied. While Facebook decided to release specifics to Congress, the company still will leave the rest of America in the dark. In a Q&A post by vice president of policy and communications Elliot Schrage, they claim it’s related to federal law.
2) Why are you sharing these with Special Counsel and Congress — and not releasing them to the public?
Federal law places strict limitations on the disclosure of account information. Given the sensitive national security and privacy issues involved in this extraordinary investigation, we think Congress is best placed to use the information we and others provide to inform the public comprehensively and completely. For further understanding on this decision, see our General Counsel’s post.
Zuckerberg also insists the platform will conduct a deeper internal investigation into its role in the 2016 election season. Watch the full announcement below: