Facebook's Latest Semi-Transparency

News  |  Nov 22, 2017

In a post on its own newsroom page, Facebook has announced plans to roll out a new tool by the end of the year that will show people how they may have been impacted by one Russian troll factory:

[W]e will soon be creating a portal to enable people on Facebook to learn which of the Internet Research Agency Facebook Pages or Instagram accounts they may have liked or followed between January 2015 and August 2017.

(...)

It is important that people understand how foreign actors tried to sow division and mistrust using Facebook before and after the 2016 US election.

Axios notes:

The announcement coincides with the deadline to respond to a letter from Sen. Richard Blumenthal asking the company to "individually notify any and all users who received or interacted with these advertisements and associated content." He also sent letters to Google and Twitter.

Axios also points out that Facebook's effort will not show users if they saw fake Russian content through their Newsfeed:

Users may have seen content that spread organically or as a result of a paid ad. Facebook has argued that it's especially difficult to be able to show that information.

 

Read more: Continuing Transparency on Russian Activity (Facebook)

Facebook will tell users if they followed Russian pages (Axios)