Facebook responds to DCMS Committee request for evidence
17 January 2018
In a letter to the Chair of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, Damian Collins MP, on 17th January, Facebook has confirmed that they are conducting their own investigation into the spread of misinformation in the lead up to the EU referendum in 2016.
Their investigation is looking to see if they can identify any coordinated activity of the spread of misinformation around the EU referendum that Facebook had not yet identified ahead of their submission to the Electoral Commission in early December 2017.
Damian Collins MP said:
“I welcome the fact that Facebook have now responded to the Committee's request, and will investigate whether the involvement of Russian agencies in the Brexit referendum campaign, may have come from sources other than those previously identified as having been actively connected with the US Presidential election in 2016.
“It is right that companies like Facebook should initiate their own research into issues like this, where there is such clear public concern, and not just act in intelligence that has been passed to them. They are best placed to investigate activity on their platform.
“I look forward to seeing the results of this investigation, and I'm sure we will want to question Facebook about this when we know the outcome.”
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