The Senate Intelligence Committee is planning to question social media giants Reddit and Tumblr over reports that the Kremlin may have used their sites to spread false information during the 2016 election.
According to The Washington Post, Senate Intel staffers are soon holding a meeting with Tumblr and are seeking additional information from Reddit after website officials said Monday that the company shut down hundreds of accounts in 2015 and 2016 that they deemed suspicious. The Russian troll farm Internet Research Agency — that was tied to special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment of 13 Russian nationals last months — used both platforms to spread disinformation, according to information first reported by the Daily Beast.
Tumblr reportedly found 21 accounts linked to the troll farm and content produced by the Internet Research Agency was shared widely on Reddit, according to the Daily Best.
Reddit officials revealed Monday that the the website had also found and removed “a few hundred” suspicious accounts, Steve Huffman, Reddit’s chief executive, said in a post on Monday.
Last year, congressional investigators grilled company executives for Facebook, Twitter and Google over Russian use of their platforms to spread disinformation and sow political division ahead of the presidential election.
