Twitter Pushed by U.K. Lawmakers to Hunt for Russia-Brexit Link

(Bloomberg) -- Twitter Inc. is facing renewed pressure from U.K. lawmakers over possible Russian interference in the 2016 vote to leave the European Union, after the company said an expanded investigation into the referendum found little evidence of Kremlin activity.

U.K. authorities have been looking for signs of Russian meddling in the Brexit vote following reports Kremlin-backed groups used social media to influence elections and sow discord in the U.S. and other countries.

In a letter to a House of Commons committee investigating a potential link, Twitter said it reviewed a new batch of suspicious accounts but found little evidence of the kind of manipulation that was present in other campaigns. The conclusion by Twitter, released Thursday by the panel, differed from Facebook Inc., which last week agreed to reopen its investigation into the referendum.

In response to Twitter, the panel in the House of Commons said Twitter has left many questions unanswered. Investigators are focusing on an October report by City University in London that found nearly 13,500 fake Twitter accounts that sent messages extensively about Brexit before disappearing after the vote. Twitter said 1 percent of the accounts were registered in Russia. Many of the accounts had been suspended for violating spam policies.

Twitter said its findings mirror those of an Oxford Internet Institute report from December that found little evidence of Russia involvement. Twitter said a report by the Intelligence and Security Committee also didn’t identify any concerns.

Damien Collins, the chair of the digital, culture, media and sports committee, said Twitter owes the panel more information on how many accounts were controlled from agencies in Russia. He also wants the company to search for accounts with similar characteristics to those that had already been identified as linked to Russia, "even if you are yet to establish conclusively that that link exists," Collins wrote in a letter to Twitter. 

"The failure to obtain straight answers to these questions, whatever they may be, is simply increasing concerns about these issues, rather than reassuring people," Collins said.

The probe added another dimension to the politically-charged debate about the U.K. decision to exit the European Union, as evidence of interference could raise questions about the integrity of the vote. The U.K. is scheduled to leave the EU starting in March 2019.

To contact the reporter on this story: Adam Satariano in London at asatariano1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Giles Turner at gturner35@bloomberg.net, Alistair Barr

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