FB ‘DARK ADS’ TARGET BREXIT
Britain not the only country grappling with unknown financiers of Facebook political advertisements, writes
PRIME Minister Theresa May has struggled to build support for her plan for Britain’s exit from the European Union. Now, it turns out, some of the opposition has come from an unknown organisation posting advertisements to millions of people on Facebook.
In the past 10 months, the entity spent more than £250,000 (RM985.45 million) on plugs pushing for a more severe break from the EU than May has planned. The advertisements reached 10 million to 11 million people, according to a report published on Oct 13 by a House of Commons committee investigating the manipulation of social media in elections.
The advertisements, which disappeared suddenly this week, are linked to websites for people to send prewritten emails to their local member of Parliament outlining their opposition to May’s negotiations with the EU.
“We voted to leave the EU, to take back control of our money and borders,” one plug read.
Who was behind the campaign remains a mystery. The name attached to it was Mainstream Network, a group that does not appear to exist in Britain, beyond the advertisements and a website. There is no information on Facebook or on Mainstream Network’s site about who is behind the organisation.
The government panel, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said the posts highlighted Facebook’s continuing problem monitoring political advertising on its social network.
“Here we have an example of a clearly sophisticated organisation spending lots of money on a political campaign, and we have absolutely no idea who is behind it,” Damian Collins, chairman of the committee, said in a statement. “The only people who know who is paying for these adverts is Facebook.”
The panel has been investigating the role of social media in elections, including Facebook’s influence on the country’s contentious 2016 vote to leave the EU. It is expected to release a full report in the coming weeks.
Rob Leathern, director of product management at Facebook, said the company would update its disclosure policy in Britain next month. It will require political advertisers to verify their identities and then attach accurate information about their identities to the advertisements.
The changes are part of new political advertising policies that Facebook announced this week for users in Britain. Not only will political advertisements need to be more clearly labelled, but the company is establishing a searchable archive of political advertisements that have been published on the site.
“We know we can’t prevent election interference alone,” Leathern said, “and offering more ad transparency allows journalists, researchers and other interested parties to raise important questions.”
Britain isn’t the only country grappling with unknown financiers of political advertisements on Facebook. In the United States, Facebook advertisements from unknown donors have begun appearing in congressional campaigns.
To oversee its response to a growing number of regulatory challenges around the world, the company announced on Oct 12 hat Nick Clegg, a former deputy prime minister in Britain who is politically well-connected in Europe, would become its new head of global public policy.
The Mainstream Network advertisements were taken down after Facebook announced its new political advertising rules in Britain, said Mike Harris, the chief executive of 89up, a social media marketing company the parliamentary committee hired to help with its investigation.
Harris, who specialises in political campaigns, discovered the plugs recently when one popped up in his social media feed. His company, which has also done work for groups in favour of remaining in the EU, found more than 70 advertisements posted over a 10-month period.
The group behind the advertisements appears to be wellfunded. Mainstream Network also maintains a polished website that mixes commentary favouring a hard break from the EU, alongside straighter coverage of events such as Amazon’s announcement that it will add jobs in Britain.
The advertisements were disclosed at a politically fragile time in Britain, where May is trying to balance the position of those who want to retain closer ties to the Continent against those who want a harder break.
Mainstream Network’s advertisements have targeted May’s central negotiating position, known as the “Chequers plan”, which would maintain a tight trading relationship with Europe. Two members of her Cabinet resigned over her approach.
Pro-Brexit hardliners want her to scrap the plan and propose a more distant relationship, like the EU’s trade agreement with Canada.
The disclosures released are a prelude to other investigations into online misinformation set to be released by the end of the year. In addition to the parliamentary committee’s final report, highly anticipated findings are expected from the Information Commissioner’s Office after its investigation of Cambridge Analytica, the London-based political targeting firm that harvested the personal data of millions of Facebook users.
Mainstream network’s advertisements have strongly targeted May’s central negotiating position, known as the “Chequers plan”, which would maintain a tight trading relationship with Europe.
NYT