Thread by @jseldin

Highlights fro #Senate Intelligence Committee Hearing on foreign interference via social media platforms:

"Election interference from abroad represents an intolerable assault on the democratic foundation this republic was built on" per @SenatorBurr

"It's also important that the American people know that these activities neither began nor ended with the 2016 elections" per @SenatorBurr "Foreign actors continue an aggressive and pervasive influence campaign against the #UnitedStatesofAmerica"

Efforts like those id'd by @facebook "creating events on our streets w/real #Americans unknowingly participating" adds @SenatorBurr

"This was never about elections. It is about the integrity of our society" per #SSCI's @SenatorBurr "This is about national security"

NEW: @facebook @Twitter @Google to appear before #Senate Intelligence Committee in September per Chair @SenatorBurr and ranking member @MarkWarner

Per Sen Warner, the senior executives will appear Sept 5 - "They can do better to protect our democracy"

"21 months after the 2016 election & only 3 months before the 2018 elections, #Russia|n backed operatives continue to infiltrate and manipulate social media to hijack the national conversation and set Americans against each other" per @MarkWarner

"I'm concerned that even after 18 months of study we are still only scratching the surface when it comes to #Russia's information warfare" per @MarkWarner

"I am also worried that the #UnitedStates gvt is not well-positioned to detect track or counter these types of influence operations" per @MarkWarner
re: #Russia #SSCI

While the Senate Intelligence Committee hears about #Russia, other manipulation of social media, here's what #Russian-linked bots&trolls have been talking about on @twitter, via @gmfus's tracker:

Senators & experts making the point that the foreign info ops on social media go beyond just politics -“It would be a mistake to think this is just about elections” per @JohnCornyn, noting similar techniques could be used to destroy reputations or tank stock prices

“On the state actor front we have seen evidence of campaigns targeting energy and agriculture” per @newknowledgeAI director of research @noUpside [Renee DiResta “In agriculture that’s taken taking the form of spreading far about #GMOs”

“There’s a commercial dimension to this that’s underreported,” @Graphika_Inc CEO John Kelly “There’s a lot more going on in the commercial space”

“Sometimes they’re tied, these political attacks & attacks on corporations where corporations will be basically punished w/falsely amplified boycott campaigns & similar measures for doing something which is politically not what #Russia wants to see” per @Graphika_Inc's Kelly

"#Russia|n manipulation did not stop in 2016. After Election Day the Russian government stepped on the gas," key US lawmakers told as they prep to grill social media giants
voanews.com/a/facebook-twi…

"What we have here is the tentacle of an octopus and we don’t know how far out on the arm of that octopus that tentacle is cut” per @Graphika_Inc CEO John Kelly re #Russia info ops

Not just #Russia: “We have found in this most recent inventory that there are 48 countries in the world w/large political parties or gvt agencies running misinformation campaigns either on their own voters or on voters in other countries" per @UniofOxford's Philip Howard

Other countries to watch, per Howard, who directs the Oxford Internet Institute:
#Turkey, #China, #Hungary, and #Iran

Black market for info ops growing - "There is a growing black market for people skilled, who have these dark arts" warned @Graphika_Inc's Kelly "They’re employing them in their own countries and they’re also starting to get hired to work in other countries"