As executives from Facebook Inc., Google Inc. and Twitter Inc. face congressional committees this week over concerns that Russian agents used their platforms in order to influence the 2016 election, a Democratic member of the Federal Election Commission says the regulatory agency has limited power to increase the transparency of online political advertisements compared to Congress.
“What we’re working on right now at the FEC is just the smallest possible step forward on this,” Ellen Weintraub, who has served on the commission since 2002, said in a Monday phone interview.