Amid mounting scrutiny over Russian-funded web advertising during the 2016 presidential election, Facebook Inc.'s internal government affairs team in Washington and the company's network of outside advocates will be tested like no time before.

On Tuesday, the chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee said he expects Facebook officials to testify this fall about the role the company played as a conduit in the Russian government's effort to influence the 2016 election. Facebook confirmed earlier this month that it received $100,000 in political ad spending from “inauthentic accounts” operated out of Russia.

“I can only go by what I've heard them say publicly, and they've expressed they don't have anything to hide, so a public hearing would be very appropriate,” the committee's chairman, U.S. Sen. Richard Burr of North Carolina, told reporters. One of Facebook's public policy specialists in Washington is a former general counsel to the Republican senator.