Responding to Russia-IRA Reports, Sen. Burr Urges Industry to Share Data

It’s critical social media companies share data on foreign meddling with third-party experts, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., responded Monday to two in-depth reports on Russia’s Internet Research Agency (IRA). Ranking member Mark Warner, D-Va., called for social media guardrails and legislative action. Analyzing 2013-18 Facebook, Instagram and Twitter posts, the University of Oxford and Graphika found the most “far-reaching” IRA activity was from organic posts, not advertisements. More than 30 million users shared IRA’s 2015-17 Facebook and Instragram posts, the report said. IRA engagement rates increased after the entity was exposed in 2016, with IRA ad volume peaking on Facebook in April 2017, the report said, citing posts baiting African-Americans, Hispanics and right-wing extremists. New Knowledge urged “robust collaboration” between government and industry. Studying IRA influence operations from 2014-17, New Knowledge tallied about 187 million Instagram engagements, 77 million Facebook engagements and 73 million Twitter engagements.