Overnight Tech: Facebook to hand over Russian political ads to Congress | Zuckerberg vows more transparency on ads | EU wants higher taxes on Silicon Valley | SEC database hacked

FACEBOOK TO HAND OVER RUSSIAN-LINKED ADS TO CONGRESS: Facebook has made a deal with Congressional investigators to turn over roughly 3000 advertisements purchased by Kremlin-linked groups during the 2016 presidential campaign.

The company confirmed Thursday afternoon that it would release details on the advertisements.

“We believe it is vitally important that government authorities have the information they need to deliver to the public a full assessment of what happened in the 2016 election,” wrote Colin Stretch, Facebook’s general counsel. “That is an assessment that can be made only by investigators with access to classified intelligence and information from all relevant companies and industries — and we want to do our part.”

{mosads}

Stretch noted that the decision had come after “an extensive legal and policy review,” with consideration for “federal law” which Facebook says “places strict limitations on the disclosure of account information.”

The same federal privacy laws were previously cited by Facebook as a reason for its hesitancy in releasing more information about the advertisements.

Facebook did not mention releasing further details on the matter to the public, something that some lawmakers have pushed for.

Facebook revealed earlier this month that Russian actors purchased $100,000 in political ads during the 2016 election, but have remained tight-lipped about further details.

Read more here.

 

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ZUCKERBERG VOWS TO MAKE FACEBOOK POLITICAL ADS MORE TRANSPARENT:

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday that he plans to make bring the company’s advertising tools to a “higher standard of transparency.”

“When someone buys political ads on TV or other media, they’re required by law to disclose who paid for them. But you still don’t know if you’re seeing the same messages as everyone else,” Zuckerberg said during a live stream on the social platform Thursday.

“Not only will you have to disclose which page paid for an ad, but we will also make it so you can visit an advertiser’s page and see the ads they’re currently running to any audience on Facebook,” Zuckerberg continued, noting that the new feature will be rolled out within the next several months.

Zuckerberg’s commitment to transparency comes amid a set of updates at Facebook, stemming from controversy over Russian actors potentially using the platform to interfere in the U.S. election.

Read more here.

 

EU WANTS HIGHER TAXES ON TECH COMPANIES: The European Union is preparing to propose stiffer taxes on digital companies if the rest of the developed world doesn’t overhaul the international tax system.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive wing, released a report on Thursday outlining its agenda to create a more equitable tax system. European officials are frustrated that Silicon Valley companies that do business on the continent get away with paying little in taxes because they often lack a physical presence there.

“The goal of this Commission has always been to ensure that companies pay their fair share of tax where they generate profits,” Pierre Moscovici, the EU’s tax chief, said in a statement. “Digital firms make vast profits from their millions of users, even if they do not have a physical presence in the EU.”

Read more here.

 

SEC DATABASE BREACHED: The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed Wednesday that hackers breached its system for public-company filings and may have profited from stolen insider information.

SEC Chairman Jay Clayton said in a statement that hackers exploited a software vulnerability in the regulator’s EDGAR filing system. That breach was discovered in 2016, he said, but the SEC did not learn about the possibility of unlawful trading until 2017.

The SEC says the software flaw was quickly patched, and that no sensitive personal information, such as credit card or Social Security numbers, was exposed in the breach.

“Cybersecurity is critical to the operations of our markets and the risks are significant and, in many cases, systemic,” said Clayton in a statement. “We must be vigilant. We also must recognize–in both the public and private sectors, including the SEC–that there will be intrusions, and that a key component of cyber risk management is resilience and recovery.”

Read more here.

 

DEM CALLS FOR CYBERSECURITY BOOST: A top Senate Democrat on Thursday said the private and public sector both need to boost their cybersecurity after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) revealed that hackers might have profited off insider information stolen from the agency’s disclosure filing system.

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), a member of the Senate Banking Committee, said the SEC breach “shows that government and businesses need to step up their efforts to protect our most sensitive personal and commercial information.”

Warner said he’d press SEC Chairman Jay Clayton on the agency’s rules dictating when companies must report data breaches when he appears before the Banking panel next week.

Read more here.

 

SENATE DEMS WANT MORE TIME ON NET NEUTRALITY: A group of Senate Democrats is asking the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to delay its effort to repeal the Obama-era net neutrality regulations in order to review a trove of recently-released documents related to the proceeding.

The nine lawmakers, led by Sen. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), wrote to FCC Chairman Ajit Pai asking if the new documents had been taken into account by the agency when deciding to roll back the rules.

“Although the Commission has undertaken an historic proceeding to undo the Open Internet Order, the FCC has failed to provide stakeholders with an opportunity to comment on the tens of thousands of filed complaints that directly shed light on proposed changes to existing net neutrality protections,” the letter reads.

Pai’s office declined to comment.

Last week, the FCC handed over 70,000 pages of documents in response to a Freedom of Information Act request from the National Hispanic Media Coalition. The group had requested all complaints filed by consumers about violations of the net neutrality rules since they went into effect in 2015.

Read more here.

 

ZUCKERBERG SAYS 2016 ELECTION WAS TURNING POINT FOR FACEBOOK: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday that the 2016 primary elections were a tipping point for his motivation to become more involved in political issues.

Zuckerberg told Bloomberg Businessweek that just over a year ago during the primaries, he noticed “something changed” in how the public perceived Facebook’s mission.

“I guess it was while the primaries were going on,” Zuckerberg said. “I mean, for most of the existence of the company, this idea of connecting the world has not been a controversial thing.”

Read more here.

 

TWITTER WILL MEET CONGRESSIONAL INVESTIGATORS: Representatives from Twitter will meet with staff from the Senate Intelligence Committee next week in connection with the panel’s investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

The social media company says that it will address fake bot accounts as well as the dissemination of hoax stories and false news on its platform with committee staffers.

“We are cooperating with the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence in its inquiry into the 2016 election and will meet with committee staff next week,” a Twitter spokesperson told The Hill on Thursday. “Twitter deeply respects the integrity of the election process, a cornerstone of all democracies, and will continue to strengthen our platform against bots and other forms of manipulation that violate our Terms of Service.”

Read more here.

 

ON TAP:

The Alliance for Manufacturing Foresight will release a new report on cybersecurity at 2 p.m.

 

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

The Hill: Dems ask FEC to create new rules in response to Russian Facebook ads

The Hill: Amazon ‘reviewing’ its site after report found suggestions of bomb ingredients

The Hill: Lawmakers worry cyberattacks could cause drug shortages

The Hill: House panel delays Kaspersky testimony

The Hill: Former NSA, CIA chief: I can’t support spy hacking if we can’t keep tools secret

The Wall Street Journal: What Google wants with HTC’s smartphone business

The New York Times: Tech companies facing new political resistance in DC

Reuters looks at the knowns and unknowns about the SEC hack