TechCrunch: Senate Intelligence Committee wants Facebook to appear in a public Russia hearing . “According to its chairman, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence intends to call Facebook to a public hearing on Russia’s interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. North Carolina Senator Richard Burr made remarks to reporters on Tuesday confirming the committee’s interest in speaking with Facebook, the Hill reports. ‘We’re in agreement on a Facebook public hearing,’ Burr said. ‘It’s just a question of when and potentially the scope.'”
fraud
Wired: To Fix Its Toxic Ad Problem, Facebook Must Break Itself
Wired: To Fix Its Toxic Ad Problem, Facebook Must Break Itself . “Two incidents in recent weeks have highlighted how Facebook’s advertising network—the cornerstone of its half-trillion-dollar valuation—is as susceptible to manipulation and bigotry as its news feed. Facebook addresses each problem as it arises, in isolation. But maybe it’s time for Facebook to acknowledge that it can’t solve these problems alone and to ask for help—before governments offer their own ‘help.'”
Wall Street Journal: Facebook Bars Advertisers from Altering News Headlines
Wall Street Journal: Facebook Bars Advertisers from Altering News Headlines. “Facebook on Thursday said it will stop allowing advertisers who promote news articles on the site to modify the headlines and descriptions that appear with them, a practice that some publishers say misrepresents their work. The social network’s change came after The Wall Street Journal contacted the company, pointing to examples of such ads.”
Exclusive: Facebook Won’t Reveal if Russia Targeted You During the Election (The Daily Beast)
The Daily Beast: Exclusive: Facebook Won’t Reveal if Russia Targeted You During the Election. “The social media giant … declined to commit to releasing information about Russian government-backed Facebook posts, groups, and paid advertisements to the users who encountered them. That means Facebook users may never know if they were targeted by foreign propaganda campaigns during the 2016 election, or if those campaigns are still filling up their newsfeeds today.”
Fortune: How We Can Fix Facebook Before the 2020 Election
Fortune: How We Can Fix Facebook Before the 2020 Election . “Social media audiences benefit from knowing the source of an ad or post. Presumably, Facebook users would be better able to judge the veracity of a political message if they knew it came from George Soros, the Koch brothers, or a Putin-friendly troll farm in Russia. If we want to avoid similar problems in 2020, the law needs to update political advertising disclosure rules for the digital age.”
The Daily Beast: Russia’s Facebook Fake News Could Have Reached 70 Million Americans
The Daily Beast: Russia’s Facebook Fake News Could Have Reached 70 Million Americans. “Russian-funded covert propaganda posts on Facebook were likely seen by a minimum of 23 million people and might have reached as many as 70 million, according to analysis by an expert on the social-media giant’s complex advertising systems. That means up to 28 percent of American adults were swept in by the campaign.”
USA Today: Fake Facebook ‘like’ networks exploited code flaw to create millions of bogus ‘likes’
USA Today: Fake Facebook ‘like’ networks exploited code flaw to create millions of bogus ‘likes’ . “A thriving ecosystem of websites that allow users to automatically generate millions of fake ‘likes’ and comments on Facebook has been documented by researchers at the University of Iowa. Working with a computer scientist at Facebook and one in Lahore, Pakistan, the team found more than 50 sites offering free, fake ‘likes’ for users’ posts in exchange for access to their accounts, which were used to falsely ‘like’ other sites in turn.”
