9 November 2019 | New Scientist | 9Analysis Social media
FACEBOOK has announced plans
to reduce misinformation and
foreign interference ahead of
the UK general election. But its
efforts are unlikely to make much
of a difference.
On 12 December, voters across
the UK will go to the polls in the
country’s first December election
in nearly a century. As the fallout
from the 2016 Brexit referendum
continues, misinformation and
electoral interference will be at
the front of many people’s minds.
“We will set up a dedicated
operations centre to bring together
the teams who monitor activity
across our platforms,” Richard Allan,
Facebook’s vice-president of policy
solutions, wrote in The Telegraph just
before the election was announced.
Facebook’s measures include
removing fake accounts and
reducing the reach of articles that
have been debunked by independent
third-party fact-checkers. The firm
announced a similar approach for
the 2020 US presidential election.
But the effectiveness of these
measures is dwarfed by changes
that the firm made to its advertising
policies in early October. Facebook
previously prohibited any advertising
that contained “deceptive, false,
or misleading content”. Now the
ban is only for “ads that include
claims debunked by third-party
fact checkers”.
This is a problem for two reasons:
Facebook’s two UK fact-checking
partners have limited resources to
monitor the more than 1 billion
pieces of content posted to the
platform daily. Full Fact, the larger
of the two partners, has a team that
comprises fewer than 10 people.
The second issue is that under
Facebook’s rules, ads from politicians
or political parties aren’t even eligible
for fact-checking in the first place.
“We do not believe it should be
our role to fact check or judge the
veracity of what politicians say,”
wrote Allan, who is also a member
of the UK’s House of Lords.
The rationale, according to a
Facebook fact sheet, is grounded in
the firm’s “fundamental belief in free
expression” and a “respect for the
democratic process”. But more than
250 of Facebook’s own staff have
openly challenged the position.“[The policy] doesn’t protect
voices, but instead allows politicians
to weaponize our platform by
targeting people who believe
that content posted by political
figures is trustworthy,” they wrote
in an open letter.
Facebook founder Mark
Zuckerberg was grilled recently by
US member of congress Alexandria
Ocasio-Cortez, and implied that
demonstrably false ads wouldn’t
be removed from the platform.
Beyond misinformation, there is
also the issue of what personal datais being used to target political
advertising at potential voters.
Facebook and other social
media companies need to
improve their transparency around
the use of data for advertising,
says Ailidh Callander at non-profit
Privacy International. In October,
a Privacy International report
found that Facebook has
increased transparency for
political ads in only 35 countries.“You have 80 per cent of the
world essentially where they’re
not making any effort whatsoever,”
says Callander. This includes no
requirement for political advertisers
to become authorised, for political
ads to carry disclosures or for ads
to be saved in a public archive.
Even in countries with heightened
transparency, like the UK, it is still
difficult for an individual to access
information about why they are
seeing particular advertisements.
Last week, Facebook agreed to
pay a penalty of £500,000 to the
Information Commissioner’s Office,
the UK data watchdog, relating to
the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
The firm dropped its appeal of
the fine, but didn’t admit fault.
The data privacy issue extends
beyond Facebook. In the UK, under
a provision of the Data Protection
Act, registered political parties can
use personal data revealing political
opinions as part of their campaigning
activities, says Callander.
“They don’t need to go and get
explicit consent,” she says. “It’s open
to abuse and it’s a condition that
political parties rely on fairly heavily.” ❚NOAH BERGER/GETTY IMAGESFacebook HQ looked for
misinformation during
the Brazil 2018 electionFighting fake news Facebook has a plan to tackle misinformation in
elections, but changes the firm made to its advertising policies in October
effectively halt the efforts before they have begun, reports Donna Lu
Twitter is banning all political
ads from its service, saying social
media companies help advertisers
proliferate highly targeted,
misleading messages.
In tweets announcing the
policy, Twitter chief executive
Jack Dorsey said: “While internet
advertising is incredibly powerful
and very effective for commercial
advertisers, that power brings
significant risks to politics, where
it can be used to influence votes
to affect the lives of millions.”
Facebook has faced criticism
since it disclosed that it won’t
fact-check ads by politicians or
their campaigns (see main story).Shortly after Twitter’s
announcement, Facebook CEO
Mark Zuckerberg said “political
speech is important” and stood
by Facebook’s decision.
Twitter currently only
allows certified campaigns and
organisations to run political ads
for candidates and issues. The
latter tend to advocate on broader
issues such as climate change,
abortion rights and immigration.
The company said it will
make some exceptions, such
as allowing ads that encourage
voter turnout. It will describe
those in a detailed policy it plans
to release on 15 November.Twitter bans political advertising
“Politicians or political
parties aren’t even
eligible for fact-checking
in the first place”