Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, delivers a speech during a visit in Paris, France, January 17, 2017, at a start-up companies gathering at Paris' Station F site as the company tries to head off tougher regulation by Germany. REUTERS/Philippe Wojazer/Files
WASHINGTON, October 12 (Reuters) - Facebook Inc Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said on Thursday that the company was fully committed to helping U.S. congressional investigators publicly release Russia-backed political ads that ran during the 2016 U.S. election.
Sandberg said during an interview with the Axios news website that "things happened on our platform in this election that shouldn't have happened."
Facebook recently gave congressional panels investigating allegations of Russian meddling during the election more than 3,000 politically divisive ads believed to have been bought by Russia.
The social media company found them on its network and said the ads appeared in the months before and after the election.
Sandberg said she was supportive of those ads being released in addition to the pages they were connected to.
"We don't want this kind of foreign interference" on Facebook, Sandberg said.
She added that in many cases, accounts were taken down because they were fake, but that if those accounts were run by real people, the social media network would have not removed them.
