USA TODAY International Edition
WHO’S BEHIND FACEBOOK ADS? MORE DEMAND TO KNOW
Backlash grows over disclosure that the social media network sold $100,000 worth of political ads placed by fake accounts out of Russia
In the weeks before SAN FRANCISCO the U.S. election, Valerie Robinson says she was bombarded by political ads on Facebook attacking Planned Parenthood and the Affordable Care Act.
It was only after Facebook disclosed that hundreds of fake accounts out of Russia injected inflammatory ads on politically divisive issues into unsuspecting Facebook users’ news feeds that her annoyance turned to anger.
Whether or not she was being targeted by shadowy foreign interests, this 37-year-old lifestyle blogger from Washington, D.C., says she has the right to know who’s behind the political ads that pop up on Facebook.
“I would like some more transparency, some more due diligence and more care with what’s being disseminated to the public,” Robinson said.
Lawmakers and pundits have blasted Facebook over revelations it sold approximately $100,000 worth of political ads placed by fake accounts and pages out of Russia. CEO Mark Zuckerberg, pressured by lawmakers, has promised to take steps to deter foreign governments from using Facebook to manipulate elections.
For users such as Robinson, those steps are key to restoring trust in the giant social network already tattered by the spread of election-related misinformation during the election. But critics say that’s not enough. They are calling for regulators, who have not kept up with the fast-growing political ads business on social media, to rein in Facebook.
“Consumers are aware that something is wrong now, but they do not have the power and agency to fix it themselves. They cannot make the changes that our democracy requires. This needs to come from our elected officials,” said Jennifer Grygiel, a professor who studies social media at Syracuse University.
Facebook became one of the world’s most valuable companies by giving advertisers the ability to target its 2 billion-plus users based on a vast trove of personal information, from where they live to what movies they like. Misuse of those tools has plunged Facebook into controversy, from targeting people who expressed interest in anti-Semitic topics such as “Jew hater” to excluding specific racial and ethnic groups when placing housing ads.
Now Facebook is being scrutinized for Russian ads that attempted to deepen political divisions by focusing on hot-button social issues such as immigration and gun rights during and after the presidential election.
Facebook has said little publicly about the ads — not what they looked like, how many people they reached or who the targets were. But the revelation has some lawmakers and regulators reconsidering their laissez-faire approach to online political ads.
Tech giants have resisted regulation of political ads.
In 2006, when the Federal Election Commission formulated rules governing political advertising on the Internet, it imposed few restrictions. Unlike political ads on TV, radio and newspapers, online political ads don’t carry disclosures.
Two U.S. senators, Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and Mark Warner, D-Va., are preparing to introduce legislation. And the Federal Election Commission is talking to Facebook, Google and Twitter about potential new disclosure rules. Among the possibilities under consideration: requiring online political ads to carry disclosures, creating a database of political ads and banning the automated sale of political ads.