Why secret Russian ads on Facebook are a worry for America
Why secret Russian ads on Facebook are a worry for America
By Luis GomezContact Reporter
Worries that Russia may have used Facebook ads to influence U.S. politics just keep piling up.
Details are slim, but a report from CNN on Wednesdayis shining new light on how Russians tried to sway public opinion via Facebook ads in the U.S., particularly before and during the 2016 election — suspicions that are at the core of investigations at the FBI and in Congress.
CNN’s Dylan Byers cited unnamed sources saying that Russians used a Black Lives Matter ad on Facebook to “amplify political discord” in Ferguson and Baltimore between late 2015 and early 2016. From the report:
“New descriptions of the Russian-bought ads shared with CNN suggest that the apparent goal of the Russian buyers was to amplify political discord and fuel an atmosphere of incivility and chaos, though not necessarily to promote one candidate or cause over another.”
The Washington Post earlier this week based a report on a batch of 3,000 ads the social media giant was said to be turning over Congress as it investigates Russia’s meddling in the U.S. election. One congressional leader overseeing an investigation, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Connecticut, called the ads “shocking.”
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Related: Exactly how Facebook is involved in probe of Russia's election interference
These and a number of other reports earlier this month are painting a worrying picture about social media’s role in democracy.
Earlier this month, Facebook said it had sold about $100,000 worth of ads to a Russian “troll farm”beginning in the summer of 2015. A report in The Daily Beast said Russians impersonated a Muslim group in the U.S. to smear Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, and Hillary Clinton on Twitter and Instagram. And one report from Politico told of Russian-bought ads creating divisions among political candidates, including Clinton, Jill Stein and the ultimate victor, Donald Trump.
President Trump has so far dismissed those reports as a “Russia hoax.”
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For its part, Facebook said it is cooperating with investigators and taking steps to prevent it from happening in the future. “I don't want anyone to use our tools to undermine democracy. That's not what we stand for,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a video last week.
The FBI may not yet be done with its investigation, but public opinion is turning on Facebook. On Twitter, the latest reports drew condemnation from people who harbor suspicions about Russia’s role in the election.
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Richard Allan, Facebook’s vice president of public policy in Europe, said in a blog post on Wednesday that the recent German elections could be a case study to show that its steps to fight misinformation are working.
“These actions did not eliminate misinformation entirely in this election — but they did make it harder to spread, and less likely to appear in people’s News Feeds,” Allan wrote. “We learned a lot, and will continue to apply those lessons in other forthcoming elections.”
Even if Facebook takes steps to fight misinformation or ads designed nefariously to create political divisions, would that be enough to prevent further meddling in future U.S. elections? And that’s just Facebook — what about Twitter or Instagram?
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