The FBI has resumed some of its efforts to share information with some American tech companies about foreign propagandists using their platforms after it ceased contact for more than half a year, multiple people familiar with the matter told NBC News.
The program, established during the Trump administration, briefed tech giants like Microsoft, Google and Meta when the U.S. intelligence community found evidence of covert influence operations using their products to mislead Americans. It was put on hold this summer in the wake of a lawsuit that accused the U.S. government of improperly pressuring tech companies about how to moderate their sites and an aggressive inquisition from the House Judiciary Committee and its chair, Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.
The lawsuit, filed by the Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri, awaits a ruling from the Supreme Court. A majority of justices appeared skeptical of the suit when they heard its claims, and the court is scheduled to rule on the suit at the end of June.
The FBI’s Foreign Influence Task Force, responsible for conducting the briefings, resumed outreach a little more than two weeks ago.
“In coordination with the Department of Justice, the FBI recently implemented procedures to facilitate sharing information about foreign malign influence with social media companies in a way that reinforces that private companies are free to decide on their own whether and how to take action on that information,” an FBI spokesperson said Wednesday.
The FBI’s previous outreach to the tech companies similarly did not include any requirement that they act on the information, said people at three of the tech companies that previously received them.
It was not clear how fully the FBI had resumed the program. Employees at two companies that had previously received the briefings said the agency had resumed limited outreach but that it had not resumed the substantial briefings.
The briefings became a fixation for Republicans on the…
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