Facebook Inc. reportedly conducted an investigation into suspicious content favoring Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) presidential campaign in recent weeks, according to a Wall Street Journal report Monday.
People familiar with the matter told WSJ that Facebook could not substantiate claims that supporters of President Trump or Russian actors were involved in producing inauthentic activity, however.
Some of the people who spoke with WSJ said that although some of Facebook’s leadership were briefed on the investigation, it is unclear whether the probe is ongoing.
WSJ’s Monday report comes on the heels of Friday reports that U.S. officials briefed Sanders on attempts by Russia to boost his presidential campaign.
Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone told WSJ that the company launched its investigation into suspicious pro-Sanders content after an outside researcher’s claim. People familiar with the matter noted to WSJ that not all internal inquiries are flagged to senior officials like this one was.
“We investigate each credible claim we receive, just as we did in this instance when an outside researcher contacted us,” Stone told WSJ. “To date, we have not been able to substantiate the researcher’s claims and we have not been notified by the intelligence community.”
A person familiar with the matter told WSJ that within the past several months, two separate and independent online disinformation researchers have found what they determined to be proof of inauthentic pro-Sanders Facebook activity possibly linked to Russian operatives or Trump supporters. People familiar with the review added that at least one of those data sets was shared with Facebook, according to WSJ.
Stone also told WSJ that “had we found a campaign of coordinated inauthentic behavior, we would’ve removed it and announced it publicly, just as we did more than 50 times last year.”
When asked by TPM for a statement regarding Facebook’s inquiry, Sanders’ campaign declined to comment.
TPM also reached out to Facebook for comment. We will update this post if we hear back.
Read the Wall Street Journal’s report here.
This is the 1st I’ve heard of potential TrumpCo inauthentic account disinformation a la Russian Information Warfare. Need to know more but it makes complete sense: No one is stopping or disciplining him or his campaign … of course they will keep pushing the limits … even if illegal.
Russia / TrumpCo = 2 sides, same coin.
Why is this reading “Facebook” is investigating and not “The FBI”…
I really trust Facebook to get to the bottom of this.
Why are you laughing?
Hadn’t you heard? Dump can’t do anything illegal. He’s the president.
And if you don’t like it he can shoot you on 5th Avenue.
Parscale is going to push things as far as he can, and that’s not going to be limited to trying to get Democrats to select the candidate that he wants to run against. The fall is going to see an explosion of disinformation that has likely never been seen before…we’ll see the Republicans cheat as blatantly as they ever have, and then there will be the Russians working hard to get Trump a second term.
Facebook is in no way ready for the onslaught, and the FBI won’t investigate anything related to Trump, though they will gladly look into the Democrats for any minor infraction…just one more way Republicans will cheat. It’s going to be a huge mess, and right in the middle of perhaps the last chance to save the free nation that we all grew up in, and one that promises freedom for all Americans going forward.