By Robert McMillan, Byron Tau and Deepa Seetharaman
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (September 22, 2017).
Facebook Inc., under fire for its response to Russian activity
on its site before the U.S. presidential election, agreed to hand
over detailed information on thousands of Russian-backed ads to
congressional investigators and said it would take steps to
increase political transparency.
The measures include disclosure requirements for political ads
on Facebook's platform, boosting its ad-review process and adding
more than 250 employees to its team working on election integrity,
more than doubling the size of that group.
The actions highlight how Facebook is grappling with its growing
role in politics -- and the social network's potential for
manipulation.
"I don't want anyone to use our tools to undermine democracy,"
Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said during a live video
broadcast on the site. "That's not what we stand for."
At the same time, Mr. Zuckerberg sought to limit how far
Facebook would go in monitoring content on its platform, reflecting
the hands-off approach it had taken toward the prevalence of
misinformation on its site during the campaign. Mr. Zuckerberg said
Facebook won't review posts or ads prior to their publication on
the platform.
"Freedom means you don't have to ask permission first, and that
by default you can say what you want," he said.
Activity that is illegal or against Facebook's community
standards would be punished after the fact, Mr. Zuckerberg added.
Facebook typically punishes users by suspending their accounts or
removing offending posts.
Facebook earlier this month said that Russian entities paid
$150,000 to run 5,200 divisive ads on its platform during the
campaign. The disclosure, prompted by congressional probes as well
as a separate inquiry by Special Counsel Robert Mueller, came after
Facebook said this summer that it had found no evidence of such
activity.
Facebook has been under political pressure to be more
forthcoming with Congress. The House and Senate intelligence
committees are both conducting probes of Russian activity during
the 2016 election with the aim of uncovering what happened during
the campaign for president. Facebook briefed the committees on its
findings in recent weeks.
Russia has denied U.S. intelligence agencies' reports that it
interfered in the election.
"It will be important for the Committee to scrutinize how
rigorous Facebook's internal investigation has been, to test its
conclusions and to understand why it took as long as it did to
discover the Russian sponsored advertisements and what else may yet
be uncovered," said Rep. Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House
Intelligence Committee.
The company previously made more complete disclosures of
Russian-linked material to Mr. Mueller for his criminal and
counterintelligence investigation.
The company was wary of disclosing the ads publicly due to
privacy concerns and fears of disrupting the Mueller inquiry, the
Journal previously reported. Facebook said it is giving Congress
only a portion of the ads: the 3,000 created by accounts tied to a
Russian entity known as the Internet Research Agency. They
represented $100,000 in ad spending.
Facebook said it found another 2,200 ads, amounting to $50,000
in spending, that were potentially tied to other Russian accounts
such as those associated with U.S. internet addresses but with the
language set to Russian. It is a violation of Facebook policy to
create "inauthentic accounts."
"American voters have a powerful and compelling interest in
knowing who is seeking to influence their vote," said Trevor
Potter, president of Campaign Legal Center, which advocates for
more disclosure and regulation of money in politics. Facebook's
handing over of the ads "is a step in the right direction, but not
nearly far enough."
Facebook is in a difficult position as it tries to balance its
privacy obligations toward users, while at the same time informing
the American public about Russian influence during the election,
said Thomas Rid, professor of Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins
University. Facebook, in negotiating the agreement with Congress,
was concerned that the personal information of its users, such as
their names or images, might have appeared in the ads, according to
people familiar with the discussions.
The fuller disclosure sets a risky precedent for Facebook, which
has been reluctant to reveal user and advertiser data.
One of Facebook's proposals announced Thursday would name the
buyer of any political ad, a measure that could keep Facebook one
step ahead of pressure from some lawmakers, who want to apply
tighter rules to political advertising on social media. Tech
companies such as Facebook and Twitter Inc. are exempt from many of
the campaign-finance rules for television and radio content, which
were written long ago.
Congressional leaders and other groups are starting to discuss
legislation that would require social-media firms to create a
public-disclosure portal of political ads, similar to television
and radio requirements.
Separately, Democrats are pushing the Federal Election
Commission to create new rules that would curb the ability of
foreigners to spend money on political advertising.
Holding social media to the same standard as broadcasters
wouldn't necessarily have stopped Russian ads from appearing on
Facebook, experts say, because most of the ads paid for by Russian
entities didn't mention the election, voting or either candidate.
The ads focused on hot-button social and political issues.
Facebook said it is still working out how its software would
determine which ads were political in nature. The vast majority of
its advertisers use its self-service ad platform and never interact
with a Facebook employee.
Facebook is probing how its site was used during the election by
foreign actors, from Russia and other former Soviet states, and
political campaigns.
"It is a new challenge for internet communities to deal with
nation-states attempting to subvert elections," Mr. Zuckerberg
said. "But if that's what we must do, we are committed to rising to
the occasion."
Write to Robert McMillan at Robert.Mcmillan@wsj.com, Byron Tau
at byron.tau@wsj.com and Deepa Seetharaman at
Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 22, 2017 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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