Facebook’s Sandberg to meet lawmakers ahead of Russia hearing

Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg will meet with lawmakers at the Capitol on Thursday as the company manages the fallout from revelations that Russian actors used Facebook to influence voters during the 2016 elections.

Sandberg’s meetings come in advance of two Congressional hearings on Russian election interference that Facebook will testify at Nov. 1.

Sandberg is slated to sit down with Congressional Black Caucus members, a Congressional source with knowledge of the meeting confirmed to The Hill.

{mosads}The caucus has recently put pressure on the company to provide more answers regarding Russian use of its platform. Three members of the caucus, Reps. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.) and Emanuel Cleaver (D-Mo.) sent letters to Facebook and Twitter last week, urging the companies to turn over ads bought by Kremlin-linked actors to the caucus. They also pressed the companies to hire more people of color to their boards, according to Recode.

Kelly separately penned a letter to Facebook last month asking it to “ensure that discriminatory and tactically divisive ad-targeting is aggressively prevented.”

The companies have already given the ads to Congressional Intelligence and Judiciary committees.

Sandberg’s visit comes as Facebook tries to repair its image after the damage to its reputation for potentially being a tool of election interference. The company has recently hired new public relations staff and taken out full page ads in major newspapers.

While in D.C., the Facebook COO will also sit down with Axios co-founder and executive editor Mike Allen for a public interview to address questions regarding Russia’s election meddling on the platform.