Twitter, decided to study Russian interference during the US 2016 elections, and said today that it will notify some of its users that they have been exposed to content generated by an alleged Russian propaganda service.
The company said it would send 677.775 emails to people in the United States who followed, rewired or appreciated the contents of the Internet Search Agency (IRA) accounts during the elections.
The IRA is a Russian organization that, according to lawmakers and researchers, employs hundreds of people to push pro-Kremlin content under false social media accounts.
Twitter added that because it has already suspended these accounts, the relevant content is no longer publicly available on its platform.
Twitter executives said Wednesday to US lawmakers that they could inform users of Russian propaganda.
The company said in September it had suspended around 200 related accounts in Russia, and followed it by suspending media advertisements Russia Today and Sputnik in October.
The highest Democratic representative of the US House of Representatives intelligence committee praised Twitter's move Friday and urged technology companies to continue investigating Russia's abuses of their platforms during the 2016 elections.
"The Committee's open hearing last November with Twitter, Facebook and Google revealed how the Russians exploited the inherent vulnerabilities of opening up our society and social media platforms, and it is vital that these companies are transparent to users who they were probably exposed to Kremlin propaganda and misinformation, "said representative Adam Schiff in a statement.
Senator Mark Warner, from the Senate Democratic Group on the Secret Service, echoed this point of view, tweeting: "I've been hard on Twitter about this, but I'm encouraged to see that the company begins to take responsibility and inform its users on the influence of Russia on its platform.
GALLERY
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