Facebook was not the only social network manipulated by Russia’s Internet Research Agency, the company at the heart of Mr. Mueller’s indictment. Even before Mr. Goldman’s tweets were blasted along to Mr. Trump’s 48 million followers, they lacked crucial context about what exactly Mr. Mueller’s investigation had found. He claimed that swinging the election in Mr. Trump’s favor was not a primary goal of Russia’s Facebook campaign, when Mr. Mueller’s indictment had just concluded that it was. Why should it reassure us that most of Russia’s Facebook advertising was purchased after the election, rather than telling us that Facebook continued to drop the ball even after it knew it had a Russia problem? Then, after the scope of Russia’s misinformation campaign became clear, they circled the wagons to protect the company’s reputation and appease its critics.

Source: New York Times February 19, 2018 21:43 UTC