WHILE YOU’RE AT IT

Britain Requests Facebook’s Russian Ad Data From Run-Up to Brexit, Election

Including how many were run, how many users saw them, and who paid for them.

Is Britain feeling left out? On Tuesday, Damian Collins, a member of Parliament and chairman of its Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee, made public his letter to Facebook, formally requesting how the Russian government may have manipulated the social-network platform during the recent British general election and 2016’s Brexit referendum. Addressing Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Collins asked for examples of all advertisements purchased by Russian-linked accounts, details on pages set up by other related accounts, as well as how many people these ads reached and how much was paid for them. Compared to the U.S., there is much less evidence to date that Kremlin bots, trolls, or other characters interfered in Britain’s political processes. But maybe Facebook just hasn’t revealed the details yet. —Joseph Cox

Read the letter to Facebook here: