Facebook to Release Russian-bought Ads, Lays Out New Ad Transparency Strategy
“we’re taking to protect election integrity and make sure that Facebook is a force for good in democracy”
Russia hysteria hit a fever pitch when it was revealed Facebook unknowingly (they claim) sold political ads to Russian actors who were attempting to influence the outcome of the 2016 election, sparking curiosity about the ad content.
After immense pressure from Capitol Hill, Facebook announced Thursday they’d be releasing the Russian-bought ads to federal investigators.
Politico reports:
In addition to disclosing details about the ads, which had been placed by a so-called Russian troll farm, Zuckerberg said his giant social media company will pursue a deeper internal investigation into how outside parties may have used its platform during 2016. Those parties include other Russian groups, former Soviet states and “the campaigns” — a seeming reference to the Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton operations.
“We may find more, and if we do, we will continue to work with the government on it,” Zuckerberg said during remarks streamed on Facebook Live.
“We are in a new world,” he added. “It is a new challenge for internet communities to have to deal with nation states attempting to subvert elections. But if that’s what we must do, we are committed to rising to the occasion.”
The company also released a statement from Facebook general counsel Colin Stretch describing the deal with Hill investigators. “We believe it is vitally important that government authorities have the information they need to deliver to the public a full assessment of what happened in the 2016 election,” he said.
The company is also turning over the information to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team but had previously only shown some of the ads to members on the Hill in a private session — and had not released extensive information about the ads.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, hosted a livestream Thursday where he laid out Facebook’s nine point strategy for handling political ad transparency in upcoming elections.
I want to share the steps that we’re taking to protect election integrity and make sure that Facebook is a force for good in democracy. And while the amount of problematic content that we’ve found so far remains relatively small, any attempted interference is a serious issue. Here are 9 things we’re going to be working on over the next few months.
The TL;DR version:
- Work with U.S. government in its investigation into Russian interference
- Continue own investigation into what happened on Facebook in the 2016 election
- Make political advertising more transparent
- Strengthen ad review policy for political ads
- Increase investment in security and specifically, election integrity
- Expand partnerships with election commissions around the world
- Increase sharing of threat info with other technology and security companies
- Strengthen democratic process
- Have been working to ensure integrity of German elections; have found no similar interference efforts in their elections
Facebook landed in hot water when so-called “fake news” purveyors used the platform to share skewed or not entirely accurate information during election season and responded by creating a board of approved fact-checkers, most of whom were left-leaning. The crusade against fake news though, has taken a back seat in the outrage bus to Russian interference.
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Comments
Release the information to the public. I don’t trust the investigators.
and Shut FaceBook DOWN.
Ruh Roh!
“Facebook shuts off critical feature — and free speech”
“Both the Daily Caller and USA Todayhave run stories on how Facebook, the world’s largest social media website….”
http://www.popnewsmagazine.com/facebook-shuts-off-critical-feature-and-free-speech/
I wonder if there will be investigations into the election interference / influence on the part of Obama and his cronies. The people of Britain and Israel want to be assured that their elections are fair and free from the outside influence of scumbags.
If it turns out the ads were for Hilliary’s benefit, I wonder
howif it will be reported by the drive-by media?I am beginning to view “Russian Interference,” and restriction on purchasing political ads as more attacks on the most hated by Democrats Supreme Court decision in Citizens United. Hillary is still smarting from that one. Progressives love to mis-characterize its holding into something not even found in the decision
I think you’ve struck upon it!
Bet on it.
You can bet on Zuckerman and his “FacistBook” doing it to influence the elections for Hillary.
Bet they did it to Bernie too………
I can almost guarantee that the ads weren’t for Hillary’s benefit – they would have been shredded long ago if that were the case.
I have democratically chosen to no longer use their site.
This seems like a good time to ask this.
Web sites have had a long time “safe harbor” protection, actually it goes back to bbs days before the internet.
I’ve heard that House Republicans have introduced a bill that revokes that protect for any site that starts censoring based on political content.
Does anyone know if this is true? Does any know what the bill label is?
This information should be released! ALL of it, pertaining to BOTH candidates! FB is more concerned with people advertising animals for sale, than with monitoring hate groups, trolls… 🙁 Great priorities, NOT!!! If FB seriously cares about truth, maybe they should disseminate factual information about issues, legislation, how our government functions, or is supposed to… However, anyone dumb enough to rely on FB for accurate, factual information, to decide how to vote, should not be voting in the first place!!! Seriously! There ARE credible sites that one can easily use, to do real research, read proposed legislation, look up voting records of candidates… Since there are, sadly, far too many people whose sole source of “news” and “information”, is social media, FB…, perhaps ads and articles promoting SOME intelligence and critical thinking, real research, and the basic essential skills of reading and comprehension, would encourage independent thinking, and knowledge of WHAT is being voted on!?! SMDH Pathetic, how some are so entirely uneducated and ignorant!
Sorry for the itchy trigger finger and the farkakte formatting in that post. I wanted to add that Smathers never gave that speech. It is urban legend originating from a newspaper article written by a creative journalist.
Translation: We will be suppressing any negative ads against democrats even if they’re true.
If people are logging on to FB expecting to see nothing but bona fide facts and truths, they are seriously delusional. FB is almost entirely opinion and useless content.
Facebook is pure fairy land………
If there was ever a face that cried for a slap, it’s schmuckerberg’s.
Sounds like he’s just being a good Dem operative.
For all the bluster about Russian “hacking” of the election, they haven’t actually been able to find anything. All they have, still, is Hillary’s stories trying to implicate her opponent as some sort of Putinean stooge.
However, if there’s an ad, then somebody paid for it. And if that somebody is Russian, then the Dems finally have something linking a Russian (or some Russians … or somebody with a Russian bank account … or etc.) to the election. But obviously the link is tenuous, certainly not illegal, and not remotely connected to the great boogeyman Trump. So it’s not much, but it’s more than they have now.