http://www.smh.com.au/world/faceboo...t-money-on-ads-on-issues-20170906-gycdc8.html
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...on-spent-money-on-ads-on-issues-idUSKCN1BH2VX
San Francisco: Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it had found that an influence operation likely based in Russia spent $US100,000 on ads promoting divisive social and political messages in a two-year-period through May.
The dominant social network said that many of the ads promoted 470 "inauthentic" accounts and pages that it has now suspended and the ads spread polarising views on topics including immigration, race and gay rights, instead of backing a particular political candidate.
Facebook announced the findings in a blog post by its chief security officer and said that it was cooperating with federal inquiries into influence operations during the presidential election.
The acknowledgment by Facebook comes as congressional investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller are probing Russian interference in the US election, including allegations that the Kremlin may have coordinated with the Trump campaign.
The US intelligence community concluded in January that Russia had interfered in the US election to help elect Trump, including by using paid social media trolls to spread fake news intended to influence public opinion.
Even though the ad spending from Russia is tiny relative to overall campaign costs, the report from Facebook that a Russian firm was able to target political messages is likely to fuel pointed questions from investigators about whether the Russians received guidance from people in the United States - a question some Democrats have been asking for months.
"I get the fact that the Russian intel services could figure out how to manipulate and use the bots. Whether they could know how to target states and levels of voters that the Democrats weren't even aware really raises some questions.
"I think that's a worthwhile area of inquiry," Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said during a May airing of the podcast Pod Save America.
"How did they know to go to that level of detail in those kinds of jurisdictions?"
An official familiar with Facebook's internal investigation said the company does not have the ability to determine whether the ads it sold represented any sort of coordination.
The acknowledgment by Facebook follows months of criticism that the social media company served as a platform for the spread of false information before the November election.
In a statement posted days after the election, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg promised to explore the issue but said that 99 per cent of information found on Facebook is authentic and only "a very small amount" is fake or hoaxes.
In December, however, the company announced that it would begin flagging articles that had been deemed false or fake, with the assistance of fact-checking organisations.
Facebook discovered the Russian connection as part of an investigation that began this spring looking at purchasers of politically-motivated ads, according to people familiar with the inquiry. It found that 3300 ads had digital footprints that led to the Russian company.
Facebook teams then discovered 470 suspicious and likely fraudulent Facebook accounts and pages that it believes operated out of Russia, had links to the company and were involved in promoting the ads.
A Facebook official said "there is evidence that some of the accounts are linked to a troll farm in St Petersburg, referred to as the Internet Research Agency, though we have no way to independently confirm." The official declined to release any of the ads it traced to Russian companies or entities.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...on-spent-money-on-ads-on-issues-idUSKCN1BH2VX
San Francisco: Facebook Inc said on Wednesday it had found that an influence operation likely based in Russia spent $US100,000 on ads promoting divisive social and political messages in a two-year-period through May.
The dominant social network said that many of the ads promoted 470 "inauthentic" accounts and pages that it has now suspended and the ads spread polarising views on topics including immigration, race and gay rights, instead of backing a particular political candidate.
Facebook announced the findings in a blog post by its chief security officer and said that it was cooperating with federal inquiries into influence operations during the presidential election.
The acknowledgment by Facebook comes as congressional investigators and special counsel Robert Mueller are probing Russian interference in the US election, including allegations that the Kremlin may have coordinated with the Trump campaign.
The US intelligence community concluded in January that Russia had interfered in the US election to help elect Trump, including by using paid social media trolls to spread fake news intended to influence public opinion.
Even though the ad spending from Russia is tiny relative to overall campaign costs, the report from Facebook that a Russian firm was able to target political messages is likely to fuel pointed questions from investigators about whether the Russians received guidance from people in the United States - a question some Democrats have been asking for months.
"I get the fact that the Russian intel services could figure out how to manipulate and use the bots. Whether they could know how to target states and levels of voters that the Democrats weren't even aware really raises some questions.
"I think that's a worthwhile area of inquiry," Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said during a May airing of the podcast Pod Save America.
"How did they know to go to that level of detail in those kinds of jurisdictions?"
An official familiar with Facebook's internal investigation said the company does not have the ability to determine whether the ads it sold represented any sort of coordination.
The acknowledgment by Facebook follows months of criticism that the social media company served as a platform for the spread of false information before the November election.
In a statement posted days after the election, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg promised to explore the issue but said that 99 per cent of information found on Facebook is authentic and only "a very small amount" is fake or hoaxes.
In December, however, the company announced that it would begin flagging articles that had been deemed false or fake, with the assistance of fact-checking organisations.
Facebook discovered the Russian connection as part of an investigation that began this spring looking at purchasers of politically-motivated ads, according to people familiar with the inquiry. It found that 3300 ads had digital footprints that led to the Russian company.
Facebook teams then discovered 470 suspicious and likely fraudulent Facebook accounts and pages that it believes operated out of Russia, had links to the company and were involved in promoting the ads.
A Facebook official said "there is evidence that some of the accounts are linked to a troll farm in St Petersburg, referred to as the Internet Research Agency, though we have no way to independently confirm." The official declined to release any of the ads it traced to Russian companies or entities.
Last edited:
