FB apologises for labelling 65,000 Russians as ‘interested in treason’
LONDON: Facebook has apologised after its advertising tools algorithmically labelled 65,000 Russians as “interested in treason”, a day after the social media giant was discovered to have given access to its site to a mail service with links to the Kremlin, a media report said here on Thursday.
The labelling, which potentially put the Russians at risk of probe by the Russian government, raises new concerns over data-driven profiling on the social media website, which has already faced global criticism for the same tool algorithmically i nferring i nformation about users’ race, sexuality and political views, according to a report in Apologising for the goof-up, a Facebook spokesperson said the label was intended to only identify historical treason.
“Treason was included as a category, given its historical significance. Given it’s an illegal activity, we’ve removed it as an i nterest category,” the spokesperson said.
Determining users’ interests algorithmically is a key aspect of the site’s advertising platform which allows advertisers to target users more accurately than they could by using simple demographic measures. For example, advertisers can run exclusive adverts targeting users living in Russia and marked as being interested in treason and then record the IP addresses of those who clicked through, the report said.
In a statement, the company said the issue has “raised a number of important questions about the way Facebook’s advertising systems work. Our goal is to ensure people see ads that are relevant and useful. It’s better for the people using our service, as well as for advertisers.”