【The Sisters' Room (2015) Watch online】

Facebook was not aware of just how much Russia was doing to affect the outcome of the 2016 U.S. election—but they did talk about fake news repeatedly with former President Barack Obama.

A Sunday story by The The Sisters' Room (2015) Watch onlineWashington Postreported that Obama spoke with Zuckerberg about fake news at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Peru in November, days after the election. That conversation was not about Russia or other foreign influence, however.

Another detail uncovered byWaPo was that Facebook approached the FBI in June 2016 with evidence of Russian accounts, according to several anonymous sources. This report comes a month after Facebook came forward with 3,000 Russian-linked ads sold during the 2016 election. Prior to Trump's victory, Facebook did not know of the ad spend.

The report provides increased understanding of just what happened on Facebook during the 2016 election, and what the company's own cybersecurity employees knew (and when they knew it) about Russia's use of its ad platform to affect voter turnout. Shortly after the election, Zuckerberg referred to fake news influencing the presidential election as a "pretty crazy idea," but now every new report makes that sentence more cringeworthy. Last Friday, Zuckerberg used Facebook Live to publicly his company's "next steps protecting election integrity" and further explain what had happened over the last month.

Obama reportedly had tried twice to warn Zuckerberg about the potential influence of his platform with regards to fake news. The first time was in January in a meeting about counterterrorism following the shooting in San Bernardino. A New York Times Magazine article from April also noted the meeting, but WaPo's report explores more of the conversation and the conflict.

Zuckerberg reportedly said in November to Obama that his team did know of the risk of fake news on the election. Facebook's security team had uncovered those suspicious accounts from a Kremlin-backed hacking team APT28 in June last year. But according to WaPo, Zuckerberg downplayed the influence and said this type of problem was not widespread and that there was also very little they could do at the time.

Still, Obama reportedly did step in to issue warning—but without knowing just what the Russians were up to. And yet, at that time, Facebook did not uncover a specific tie between Russian operatives, Facebook ads, and the 2016 election.

“We believe in the power of democracy, which is why we’re taking this work on elections integrity so seriously, and have come forward at every opportunity to share what we’ve found," Elliot Schrage, vice president for public policy and communications, said in a statement following WaPo's story Sunday.

"At the same time, we will keep doing our part to help people participate in democracies around the world – by connecting them with information on how to vote, on who their representatives are, and on what issues are at stake," the statement continued.

To further clarify the conversation between Zuckerberg and Obama, Facebook's team issued another statement Monday that denied any conversation about foreign influence between the two leaders.

"We appreciated President Obama’s attention to these issues. Their conversation was about misinformation and false news, which Mark had addressed the previous day in a post that outlined specific steps Facebook was taking to combat these challenges," said Schrage, referencing this lengthy post from Zuckerberg from Nov. 19.

"The discussion did not include any references to possible foreign interference or suggestions about confronting threats to Facebook," Schrage said.

The several statements from Schrage come as Sen. Mark Warner from Virginia has been calling for more transparency from Facebook in regards to fake news and Russian ads purchased during the 2016 election. Facebook has been cooperating with former FBI director and special counsel Robert Mueller with his investigation into Russia's interference.

A Facebook spokesperson told Mashableearlier this month that they were transparent with the FBI and the investigation and immediately sent reports to officials when they were uncovered. Prior to the election, the company found no evidence of Russian-linked ads. The 3,000 ads from about $100,000 in spending were uncovered this month.

It seems that there may have been a lack of aligned strategies. Obama aides reportedly regret not doing more to address the issue of Russian accounts on Facebook, according to WaPo.

But now, it's clear the Sen. Warner, other lawmakers, and the ongoing Mueller investigation has turned up the heat on Facebook and other digital platforms. Zuckerberg said last week his company will begin better self-regulating themselves to prevent against future attacks on political elections. For example, all political ad creative will be publicly available.

Editor's note: This piece has been updated to clarify the timeline of communication between Facebook and the U.S. government and clarify that Russia was not discussed.