Reddit has yet to turn over info on ads for Russia probe: report

Reddit has not turned over any documents to congressional investigators regarding Russian influence on its platform despite saying that it is cooperating with lawmakers on the matter, The Daily Beast reported on Wednesday.

Sources told the news outlet that Reddit has yet to hand over any documents to the House and Senate panels responsible for investigating Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.

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The report comes after Reddit CEO Steve Huffman said that his company was “cooperating with congressional inquiries” in a public post he made on Monday.

“While I know it’s frustrating that we don’t share everything we know publicly, I want to reiterate that we take these matters very seriously, and we are cooperating with congressional inquiries,” Huffman wrote in a blog post on Monday.

The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Adam Schiff (Calif.), urged Reddit to provide any information that it may have to his committee.

“We hope and expect Reddit, Tumblr, and other companies to thoroughly research both paid advertising and organic content that can be traced to Russia’s disinformation campaign and to provide that information to the Committee,” Schiff said in a statement to The Daily Beast. 

“I have repeatedly urged the social media companies to share data among themselves and prepare a joint report for the committee on how these platforms were used interchangeably to reinforce the Russian messages, and I continue to hope that they will do so,” he added.

The recent scrutiny, and Huffman’s statement, come after Reddit said it had removed “a few hundred accounts” linked to Russian propaganda from its platform. 

Lawmakers have shown interest in Reddit as a potential tool for Russian political meddling since September, when the Senate Intelligence Committee’s top Democrat, Mark Warner (Va.), said he was interested in examining the platform’s potential role more closely.