Mark Zuckerberg announced on Thursday, September 21, that Facebook (NASDAQ:$FB) has taken a step forward and reached out to various congressional leaders in an attempt to agree on a process of handing over suspected Russian-linked election advertisements.
In case you missed it, Facebook released the results of an investigation in the 2016 United States presidential election in early September. The results showed that the investigation found roughly $100,000 in ad spending from June 2015 to May 2017, all of which is linked to approximately 3,000 ads suspected to be from Russian profiles. The ads had reportedly been shared with a special counsel involved in the investigation of the Russian influence in the 2016 election.
On Thursday, Zuckerberg said he has informed his staff to provide those ads to Congress as well.
“We are committed to rising to the occasion. Our sophistication in handling these threats is growing and improving quickly. We will continue working with the government to understand the full extent of Russian interference,” CEO Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg’s comments are significant as he appears to be moving away from his initial reaction to the election. He initially rejected the claims that viral fake news stories swayed the election, calling the idea “crazy”.
He spoke on Thursday in a live stream on his own Facebook profile, at 3:30 p.m. ET. Facebook released two blog posts regarding the issue.
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