The closed-door sessions followed similar briefings earlier this month with Facebook, which has also agreed to provide lawmakers with 3,000 Russia-linked ads involving divisive social and political issues that were placed on its platform.
The committees are examining the spread of false news stories and whether anyone in the United States aided in targeting content to certain users. In the case of Twitter, that includes examining so-called bot accounts that are set up to quickly and automatically spread information.
“Of the roughly 450 accounts that Facebook recently shared as a part of their review, we concluded that 22 had corresponding accounts on Twitter. All of those identified accounts had already been or immediately were suspended from Twitter for breaking our rules,” Twitter announced in a blog post Thursday afternoon. “In addition, from those accounts we found an additional 179 related or linked accounts, and took action on the ones we found in violation of our rules.”
Twitter also said the Russian news site RT spent $274,100 in ads on its platform in 2016.
But despite the disclosures, ranking lawmakers said they were disappointed in Twitter’s handling of the issues.
Democratic Representative Adam Schiff of California said, “Much of the information that Twitter used to identify Russian-linked accounts, however, was derived from Facebook’s own analysis, and it is clear that Twitter has significant forensic work to do to understand the depth and breadth of Russian activity during the campaign.”
Senator Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, said the company “showed an enormous lack of understanding … about how serious this issue is, the threat it poses to democratic institutions.”
The meetings with technology companies have so far been closed to the public, but both the House and Senate intelligence committees are planning to hold public hearings about the use of online tools in connection with efforts to influence the election.