Social media companies Facebook and Twitter seemed initially reluctant to admit that their platforms’ were abused by the Russians to sow (even more) discord during the U.S. 2016 election seasons. Unfortunately for them, the problem has only grown and it’s forcing them to face the music as they try to do damage control.
In efforts to create more transparency about who was impacted by the Russian bot propaganda, Twitter started telling users whether they’ve interacted with such content. After giving an initial number of 650,000 impacted users the company just doubled their initial estimate, The Hill reports.
Twitter says the number of users who may have interacted with Russian content intended to influence the election is now 1.4 million.
The company provided the updated figure, more than double the 650,000 users the company notified initially, on Wednesday.
The new figures include users who engaged with or followed Russian accounts, as well as people who don't receive Twitter emails and can't be notified that they were affected.
While it’s great that Twitter started notifying users, people still have questions. The email doesn’t specify what Russian-linked content they saw.
This is likely far from over. Earlier today, the platform caught heat over suspicions that the Russian bot network is pushing #ReleaseTheMemo. Democrats Sen. Dianne Feinstein of the Senate Judiciary Committee and Rep. Adam Schiff (CA) of the House Intelligence Committee denounced both Twitter and Facebook as unhelpful.
Schiff and Feinstein said that they were “no closer to understanding Russia’s continuing interference in our democratic affairs” following Twitter and Facebook’s responses, noting that the companies did not answer their questions about the volume of bot accounts that were involved in pushing #ReleaseTheMemo, how much these accounts posted and how many legitimate — rather than automated — accounts were tied to the campaign.