Russia said to aid effort to release memo on FBI probe

Washington

TOP Democrats on Tuesday called on Facebook and Twitter to investigate what lawmakers said are Russian efforts to promote the release of a classified Republican memo criticising the FBI probe of Russia's meddling in the 2016 campaign. #ReleaseTheMemo and other hashtags have been trending on Twitter in recent days, and accounts affiliated with Russian influence efforts have been supporting this campaign, said the Alliance for Securing Democracy, a US-based group that examines efforts to interfere in democratic institutions.

"If these reports are accurate, we are witnessing an ongoing attack by the Russian government through Kremlin-linked social media actors directly acting to intervene and influence our democratic process," said a letter to Facebook and Twitter from Representative Adam Schiff and Senator Dianne Feinstein, both Democrats from California who are the top members of their party on the House Intelligence Committee and Senate Judiciary Committee, respectively.