Apple CEO Tim Cook to Appear on NBC Nightly News Tonight

Apple CEO Tim Cook will appear in an interview with NBC's Lester Holt on this evening's NBC Nightly News broadcast, NBC unveiled in a tweet this afternoon.

One of the topics of discussion will include Russia's use of social media to interfere with the 2016 presidential election. In a teaser clip airing ahead of the interview, Cook says the use of social media to spread fake news and manipulate people is a major problem.

"I don't believe that the big issue are ads from foreign government. I believe that's like .1 percent of the issue," Cook told NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt in an exclusive interview airing Wednesday night.

"The bigger issue is that some of these tools are used to divide people, to manipulate people, to get fake news to people in broad numbers, and so, to influence their thinking," Cook said. "And this, to me, is the No. 1 through 10 issue."

Cook's commentary on Russia comes just after representatives from Facebook, Twitter, and Google testified before congress over what role Russian interference on social media networks may have played in the election. On Facebook alone, an estimated 126 million Americans viewed Russian-backed ad content during the campaign.

During the testimony, execs from the three social networks faced tough questions and were lambasted for not doing more to prevent Russia from taking advantage of social media to spread misinformation.

Another topic of conversation will include US tax reform, with Cook telling Holt that tax reform is sorely needed and "should have been fixed years ago."

NBC Nightly News premieres at 6:30 p.m. eastern time in the United States.

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