Facebook discovery of covert activity shows 'aggressive' anti-U.S. campaign, senior GOP senator says

WASHINGTON – Facebook's discovery of a covert campaign to try to influence the November elections underscores that Russia and other foreign actors "continue an aggressive and pervasive influence campaign against the United States," senior Republican Sen. Richard Burr said Wednesday.

Burr, the Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, said at a hearing that the threat to the nation is as serious as "terrorism, weapons of mass destruction, espionage or regional instability."

He said Russia and other foreign powers are "using our own rights and freedoms to weaken our country from within."

"Election influence from abroad represents an intolerable assault on the democratic foundation this republic was built on," Burr said.

Facebook announced Tuesday that it had detected a covert campaign to try to influence the Nov. 6 congressional elections by targeting divisive social issues such as race and immigration.

The social media company discovered 32 fake pages and accounts, created between March 2017 and May 2018. While Facebook officials could not definitively tie the fake accounts to Russia, intelligence agencies have been warning that the Kremlin will try to interfere in this year's election, just as it did in the 2016 presidential race.

The Senate Intelligence Committee has invited executives from Facebook, Twitter and Google to a hearing scheduled for Sept. 5.

The Senate panel, unlike its House counterpart, has agreed in a strong, bipartisan way with the 2017 assessment by U.S. intelligence agencies that Russia interfered in the 2016 election and that the Kremlin was trying to help boost Donald Trump's candidacy while hurting Hillary Clinton.

Vice Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said Congress needs to go beyond hearings and take legislative action.

"I think we need to start pushing ourselves beyond just recognizing the problem and start to push actual policy ideas forward," Warner said.

The bill that appears to be gaining the most momentum is the Secure Elections Act, a bipartisan bill by Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla., and Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., that would strengthen information-sharing between federal and state officials to thwart Russian hackers trying to breach election systems. Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt, R-Mo., said Tuesday that the panel will vote on the bill later this month.

Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said Wednesday that what's happening on Facebook and other social media platforms is "nothing less than informational warfare" by Russian President Vladimir Putin against America.

"This is part of their broader strategy to weaken an adversary," Rubio said. "It's worked to some extent...This is not (election) interference, this is informational warfare."

WPXI