At a Senate Judiciary markup on Thursday morning, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) said she will send a letter to Facebook and the Justice Department regarding concerns raised yesterday that the company might be violating campaign finance rules. Her criticism follows an explosive report from The New York Times yesterday that documents how Facebook’s leaders handled the fallout of the 2016 election.
At the markup, Klobuchar said that she was concerned that Facebook reportedly hired an opposition research firm in the aftermath of the 2016 election “to go after its critics.” The Times story named a Republican firm called the Definers Corporation, which was reportedly hired to target the company’s critics and competitors by tying protestors to the highly influential Democratic donor, George Soros.
“I will be sending a letter today to Facebook as well as to the Justice Department because if, in fact, they were taking actions against critics, this could be a campaign finance issue,” Klobuchar said at the markup. “Whether they hired someone to work on this, we don’t know what happened and it wasn’t reported in that fashion. It could also have other legal ramifications.”
Klobuchar also brought up The Honest Ads Act, of which she is a cosponsor. The bill would require Facebook to open a public database with records of every political ad purchased on its platform and combat foreign interference in elections. It was introduced last fall after it was discovered that Russian agents were using Facebook to spread misinformation through the company’s ads platform. According to the Times, Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s chief operating officer, reached out to Klobuchar to discuss the legislation. Reportedly, Klobuchar backed off from criticizing the company after the discussion, having not posted any harsh statements on her Facebook page.
Facebook lobbied heavily in connection with the Honest Ads Act, according to public records. Separately, Klobuchar has received nearly $20,000 in campaign contributions from Facebook in 2018.
After yesterday’s report, the presidential-hopeful might be looking to revamp her criticism and push harder for the Honest Ads Act. “I have tried very hard to get more support for this bill,” Klobuchar said. “I personally think post-election, this is an ideal time to move forward with this legislation. I appeal to my friends on the other side of the aisle.”
A spokesperson for Sen. Klobuchar told The Verge that they had not yet seen a copy of the letter the senator mentioned.