The Washington Post reveals President Obama pulled aside Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg at a meeting of world leaders in Lima, Peru on November 19, 2016 and asked him to do more to address the issue of fake news and disinformation. Obama reportedly warned Zuckerberg, who said it was 'crazy' to assume his social network played a role in swaying voters' opinions, that the problem was going to escalate if he and the government failed to address it.
The article explains why Facebook's security team missed the threat of Russian influence in real time:
The sophistication of the Russian tactics caught Facebook off-guard. Its highly regarded security team had erected formidable defenses against traditional cyber attacks but failed to anticipate that Facebook users — deploying easily available automated tools such as ad micro-targeting — pumped skillfully crafted propaganda through the social network without setting off any alarm bells.
When Facebook did uncover the Internet Research Agency, a pro-Kremlin troll farm operator, purchased at least 3,000 ads between 2015 and 2017, it let Congress know. And now Congress warns, expect more:
Congressional investigators say the disclosure only scratches the surface. One called Facebook's discoveries thus far "the tip of the iceberg." Nobody really knows how many accounts are out there and how to prevent more of them from being created to shape the next election — and turn American society against itself.
Read the full article.