Facebook Won’t Say if Russians Are Targeting Midterm Elections

Facebook has refused to say whether it’s identified any Russian efforts to influence this fall’s midterm elections. In a conference call with reporters Tuesday, company execs tried to praise the efforts they’re making to prevent the kind of false reports and propaganda that swamped the platform during the 2016 presidential election. Reporters asked the execs whether they’ve already identified Russian efforts to interfere in the midterms—but they wouldn’t say. “We think it’s inevitable that we will find evidence and we will find other actors, whether these are from Russia or from other countries or domestic actors that are looking to try and abuse the platform,” said Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook’s head of cybersecurity policy. He went on: “One nuance here is that because the nature of these investigations, we always have to be careful about compromising the investigation, either our own or government, when we’re thinking about how to engage the public around these issues.” Facebook reiterated that it would not take down posts simply because they are false—CEO Mark Zuckerberg was criticized last week for citing Holocaust denials as an example of false statements that would not be removed if they were sincerely voiced.