Facebook to Disclose What Groups Were Targets of Russia-Backed Election Ads
October 12 2017 - 11:18AM
Dow Jones News
By Deepa Seetharaman and Julie Bykowicz
Facebook Inc. will publicly disclose the types of people
targeted by Russian-backed ads during and after the 2016
presidential election, operating chief Sheryl Sandberg said.
In an interview Thursday with Axios, Ms. Sandberg acknowledged
Facebook's platform was manipulated in a way it shouldn't have been
during the election. She said the company was cooperating with
Congress and planned to share with investigators more information
about Russia-linked activity on the social network.
Facebook last month said it had identified 470 "'inauthentic"
Russian-backed accounts tied to one pro-Kremlin company that was
responsible for $100,000 in ad spending on the company's platform.
Those ads reached an estimated 10 million people.
The targeting information will reveal what kinds of American
voters Russians aimed to reach. Facebook enables ads to be targeted
by race, ethnicity, location and other characteristics.
Those who have seen the Facebook ads describe them as being
intended to sow chaos. But Ms. Sandberg stressed that had the ads
been purchased by legitimate accounts, Facebook would have allowed
them to run.
"We don't check the information people put on Facebook before
they run it and I don't think anybody should want us to do that,"
Ms. Sandberg said.
Facebook is sharing information about its findings with other
tech companies, she said. The company also is investing in machine
learning to detect the kind of fake accounts that bought divisive
ads and spread fake news during the election.
Facebook already has shared advertisements with Congress. On
Thursday, Ms. Sandberg said the company also was willing to hand
over free posts shared by those accounts, which would have reached
far more users than the ads.
"We're going to give them the material they want," she said.
Congress is investigating foreign interference in the 2016
election, including efforts to back Donald Trump and oppose his
Democratic rival, Hillary Clinton. Ms. Sandberg met with lawmakers
Wednesday in Washington and is due to meet with the Congressional
Black Caucus later Thursday.
On Wednesday, House lawmakers leading an investigation into
Russian interference in the 2016 presidential race said they would
release the Facebook ads publicly. Facebook will help to scrub user
information from the ads before their release.
Write to Deepa Seetharaman at Deepa.Seetharaman@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
October 12, 2017 11:03 ET (15:03 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2017 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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