Social Media Companies Get Unaccustomed Grilling on Russia Ads - Bloomberg

Also see Tech executives try to placate lawmakers on disclosure (Washington Post)

"The ridicule came from Democratic Senator Al Franken, who expressed amazement that Facebook had failed to detect Russians were behind American political ads on its platform even though some of them were paid for in rubles.

“People are buying ads on your platforms with rubles! They’re political ads,” the senator from Minnesota said. “You can’t put together rubles with a political ad and go like, ‘Hmmm, those two data points spell out something bad?’”

“It’s a signal we should have been alert to and in hindsight, it’s one we missed,” said Stretch, who received the most questions among the internet-company witnesses and the most prodding from lawmakers to respond directly rather than sticking to Facebook talking points."

Social Media Companies Get Unaccustomed Grilling on Russia Ads - Bloomberg