Several Facebook representatives held a press call Thursday and outlined steps the social network is taking to fight future foreign election interference.
A transcript of that call shows Facebook is focusing on identifying likely fake accounts and removing them before they can cause harm; doubling the staff it dedicates to security issues; looking for pages of foreign origin that are "distributing inauthentic civic content" and flagging them for futher scrutiny; partnering with third-party fact checkers to identify false information and containing bad actors' ability to spread it far and wide; requiring political advertisers to show whom they work for and confirm they are located in the United States, and adding a "paid for by" identifier on political ads.
This summer, we’ll launch a public archive showing all ads that ran with a political label. Beyond the ad creative itself, we’ll also show how much money was spent on each ad, the number of impressions it received, and the demographic information about the audience reached. And we will display those ads for four years after they ran. So researchers, journalists, watchdog organizations, or individuals who are just curious will be able to see all of these ads in one place. This will offer an unmatched view of paid political messages on the platform.
While the plan sounds comprehensive, even Facebook's founder is skeptical the company can stop all foreign interference.
In an interview with the New York Times this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company is expecting that foreign governments like Russia will continue to meddle if they can.
“I feel a lot better about the systems now. At the same time, I think Russia and other governments are going to get more sophisticated in what they do, too,” Zuckerberg said. “So we need to make sure that we up our game. This is a massive focus for us to make sure we’re dialed in for not only the 2018 elections in the U.S., but the Indian elections, the Brazilian elections, and a number of other elections that are going on this year that are really important.”
Some lawmakers and critics say Facebook still has more work to do.
... Facebook says it's focused on paid ads run by federal candidates or political committees, not on combating negative appeals from Russian operatives on hot-button social issues.
Many of the ads linked to Russian operatives did not call for people to vote for a specific candidate. Instead, Russians, posing as Americans, spread divisive messages to stir up voters and public outrage ...
Rep. Robin Kelly, a Democrat from Illinois and a ranking member of Congress’ IT oversight subcommittee, says she's pleased Facebook is taking steps to improve disclosure on candidate ads, but says the company is missing a "major vulnerability" on social issue ads.
(...)
Facebook is trying to keep the focus on what it can control: official ads from U.S. political campaigns, says Siva Vaidhyanathan, professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and author of the upcoming book on Facebook Antisocial Media.
"It would rather you pay no attention to all the pollution that will also flow through our News Feeds like propaganda meant to sow doubt and mistrust in society, democracy, science, and basic institutions," Vaidhyanathan said.
Election experts say Facebook must crack down on inflammatory ads on politically divisive issues such as immigration reform and gun rights, which were used to influence voters during and after the presidential campaign.
(...)
Targeting issue ads is easier said than done, according to Stanford University economics professor Matthew Gentzkow. Candidate ads are simple to identify, but "there is a whole soup of issue ads that are much harder to define," he said.
Countering election interference is just one of many issues Facebook is facing at the moment. In an article entitled "Everything that's going wrong for Facebook right now," CBS News runs down a long list of problems plaguing the social network, including a Federal Trade Commission investigation, 37 state attorney generals demanding answers and four launching investigations, user lawsuits over political ads and Messenger, investor lawsuits over stock drops, and more.
Hard Questions: What is Facebook Doing to Protect Election Security? (Facebook)
Facebook has released a more detailed plan to fight election interference for the 2018 midterms (Recode)
Everything that's going wrong for Facebook right now (CBS News)
Facebook aim to fight election manipulation misses a big problem, critics say (USA Today)