By Jeff Horwitz
Political groups are getting around Facebook Inc.'s system for
blocking false political advertising by reposting ads found to
violate its policies, exposing a loophole in the company's efforts
to contend with misinformation.
Three political groups backing President Trump's re-election
have adopted the tactic, repeatedly uploading with little or no
alteration ads that Facebook had pulled down after its fact
checkers judged them to be inaccurate, according to researchers on
misinformation and a public archive Facebook maintains of ads run
on its platform. Some of those reposted ads have been shown
millions of times in swing states during the waning days of the
U.S. presidential campaign, a period when Facebook has said it is
taking extra care to stamp out misleading political ads.
The issue shows Facebook's continued challenges with enforcing
its own policies across its platforms, especially on content that
is politically divisive. Many on the left have said Facebook isn't
aggressive enough on policing misinformation, while conservatives
have accused Facebook and its fact checkers of bias and
censorship.
American Principles Project, a conservative group based in
Arlington, Va., ran ads on Facebook last month saying that former
Vice President Joe Biden supports the loose collection of far-left
activists known as Antifa, backs sex-change operations for children
and supports legislation that would "destroy girl's sports" by
allowing transgender athletes to compete in them.
Facebook removed the ads after its fact-checking partners
including PolitiFact, an arm of the nonprofit Poynter Institute for
Media Studies, deemed them to be either false or missing context.
American Principles Project reposted versions of the ads with the
same claims, but slight differences to the wording. The ads were
targeted heavily at swing states, including Wisconsin and Michigan,
according to Facebook's ad archive. In total, the reposted ads have
been shown to Facebook users more than three million times,
according to data gathered by Laura Edelson, a New York University
researcher who studies political advertising online.
Terry Schilling, executive director of American Principles
Project, said he had sought to alter the ads in ways that might
avoid further action by fact checkers, such as by removing
references to state-specific public policy issues.
"Frankly, the fact check organizations -- especially PolitiFact
-- are extremely unhelpful in offering guidance on how to improve
the accuracy of the ad. So in some cases we did a best guess," he
wrote in an email to The Wall Street Journal.
Facebook acknowledged that it had failed to prevent some claims
that had been previously determined misleading from returning to
the platform. "We reviewed these ads and are taking action on those
that violate our policies, while also working to improve how we
find similar ads to those that were already rated," spokeswoman
Andrea Vallone said.
Facebook over the weekend pulled down some of the reposted
versions of the ads that the Journal asked about.
Aaron Scharockman, executive director of PolitiFact, said it has
seen ads it judged false reposted, but that PolitiFact isn't
equipped to track down all additional versions of a claim it deems
false, and that Facebook determines what to remove. PolitiFact says
it explains its decisions in its published fact checks.
The Democratic National Committee, which flagged some examples
of the ad reposting to Facebook and the Journal, has complained to
Facebook for more than a year about its failure to consistently
enforce its fact checkers' decisions, Nellwyn Thomas, the DNC's
chief technology officer, said in a written statement. She said
that the loophole has allowed "blatant disinformation" to remain on
the platform late into the U.S. presidential campaign.
The Republican National Committee didn't respond to requests for
comment on whether it has seen examples of similar practices by
anti-Trump groups.
Eric Wilson, a Republican political-technology strategist, said
running the previously removed ads is a rational response to gaps
in Facebook's enforcement system. "There's so much ad creation
going on, and Facebook is so bad at enforcing their policies
consistently," he said.
Facebook's political-ad policies have drawn criticism from both
parties. Over the past year, Facebook has explained, defended and
revised its rules, settling on an arrangement in which it doesn't
fact-check ads from political campaigns themselves but does do so
for political ads from individuals, businesses and political-action
committees. The fact checks are done by a range of independent
groups and designated news organizations.
Democrats have said that compromise gives a green light to
misinformation campaigns. Republicans have said they are unfairly
targeted.
Mr. Schilling said the ads from American Principles Project
shouldn't have been fact-checked in the first place. He said his
group plans to file a Federal Election Commission complaint against
Facebook after the election.
"Why not trust the American people to make the decision as to
the accuracy of the ad?" he said. "What gives PolitiFact more
credibility on gender identity issues than us?"
Facebook has announced other ad restrictions around the
presidential campaign, including a ban on new political ads in the
final week before Election Day, which Chief Executive Mark
Zuckerberg said was designed to curtail false information in the
campaign's waning days. Political advertisers, including from the
Biden and Trump campaigns, said they have encountered ad glitches
blocking approved ads that Facebook has since indicated it mostly
solved.
The reposted ads that Facebook fact checkers judged false have
sometimes had wide reach.
America First Action ran an ad saying that Mr. Biden plans to
ban fracking, part of about $5.6 million spent on Facebook ads by
the Republican PAC through a page managed by Parscale Strategy LLC,
a digital advertising firm owned by Mr. Trump's former campaign
director.
"Joe Biden's ban on fracking would put me and everybody I know
out of work," a man described as a "Union Man" and Democrat says in
the ad.
Facebook fact-checking partners including Lead Stories ruled
this summer that the ad's claim isn't accurate.
Mr. Biden has said he doesn't intend to ban fracking, other than
halting new drilling permits on federally owned land. He said in
the second presidential debate that he plans to transition away
from the oil industry to renewable energy over time.
After Facebook removed the ad, America First Action uploaded the
same claim repeatedly, often with the exact same wording.
Facebook's fact checkers eventually caught many of the repeats, but
not before they gained wide distribution.
America First Action didn't respond to requests for comment.
According to data compiled by Ms. Edelson of NYU, the ads have
been shown more than 2.4 million times to Facebook users in
Pennsylvania since they were first removed for misinformation. More
than one million of those impressions have been shown in the past
week and a half.
"What's happening here is a failure of enforcement," said Ms.
Edelson. She said it shouldn't be difficult for Facebook's
artificial-intelligence technology to identify new uploads of an
image, string of text or link that is associated with a fact
check.
--Emily Glazer contributed to this article.
Write to Jeff Horwitz at Jeff.Horwitz@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 01, 2020 17:35 ET (22:35 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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