Republican Senator Richard Burr on Wednesday criticized the U.S. situation by referencing a meme which depicts a blithely indifferent cartoon dog sitting in a burning room.
Burr relating to the Russian election interference said that there’s a sense that Americans are in the “this is fine” meme.
“Some feel that we as a society are sitting in a burning room calmly drinking a cup of coffee, telling ourselves, ‘this is fine’,” said Burr, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee.
“That’s not fine and that’s not the case,” he continued during a statement for a committee hearing about foreign influence on social media platforms. “We should no longer be talking about ‘if’ the Russians attempted to interfere with American society.”
“They’ve been doing it since the days of the Soviet Union and they’re still doing it today,” he added.
According to The Hill, social media experts at the hearing testified about Moscow’s efforts to influence U.S. elections through platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
All of the experts agreed that several foreign governments are continuing to spread disinformation and gain influence online as the U.S. approaches the 2018 midterm elections.
Meanwhile, Facebook on Tuesday announced that it removed 32 pages and accounts across Facebook and Instagram that were part of a coordinated disinformation campaign.
The company has not been able to identify their origin yet; however, they said it is similar to strategies used by Russian intelligence officials during the 2016 election.
President Donald Trump regularly doubts the Kremlin interference in U.S. elections.
During the press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland, last month, Trump appeared to dismiss the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Moscow conspired to interfere in the presidential election.
“I will say this: I don’t see any reason why it would be [Russia],” Trump said. “So, I have great confidence in my intelligence people, but I will tell you that President Putin was strong and powerful in his denial today.”
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