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Reporters Posed as 100 Senators To Run Ads on Facebook. Facebook Approved All of Them. (vice.com)
William Turton, reporting for Vice News: One of Facebook's major efforts to add transparency to political advertisements is a required "Paid for by" disclosure at the top of each ad supposedly telling users who is paying for political ads that show up in their news feeds. But on the eve of the 2018 midterm elections, a VICE News investigation found the "Paid for by" feature is easily manipulated and appears to allow anyone to lie about who is paying for a political ad, or to pose as someone paying for the ad. To test it, VICE News applied to buy fake ads on behalf of all 100 sitting U.S. senators, including ads "Paid for by" by Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer. Facebook's approvals were bipartisan: All 100 sailed through the system, indicating that just about anyone can buy an ad identified as "Paid for by" by a major U.S. politician. What's more, all of these approvals were granted to be shared from pages for fake political groups such as "Cookies for Political Transparency" and "Ninja Turtles PAC." VICE News did not buy any Facebook ads as part of the test; rather, we received approval to include "Paid for by" disclosures for potential ads.
Given how easily the Russian Trolls descended upon Social Media and went largely undetected, it comes to no surprise to me that ads are not screened. All About Money. Nothing to see new and inventive here.
It's good to know that our elected representatives can be bought and paid for on Facebook.
Broadcasters can't censor political ads, and there's no rules covering "political truth", so it's now anything goes.
Also, the limits on PAC spending have been removed, so these ads are showing up everywhere
I'm seeing and hearing outrageous and obvious lies in this recent run. Thanks Trump!
This is even more reason to delete Facebook. Facebook is ultimately a failed social experiment. Here's to hoping it continues a decline in popularity.
They are not going to turn away money at the end of the day unless they are legally required to do so.
Do think any bars would card if the force of law did not obligate them to it? I doubt many would. I am sure a little human decency would stop most from selling liquor to children; but few would turn away teens.
facebook is in the same boat here. Yes its illegal for a political campaign to take foreign money. In a lot of cases its illegal for them to coordinate efforts with foreign actors.
I have yet to see anyone point a law that specifically prevents 99% of those face book ads from being underwritten by foreign persons. The only political speech foreigners are bared from AFAICT is explicit campaign activities IE running an ad advocating voting for or against a specific candidate. They can run issues ads all day long. Its not even clear its illegal for them to suggest a candidate is a criminal, or a Nazi, or whatever if they stop short of saying "vote no.." etc.
IMHO facebook did nothing wrong - they sold ad space. The people crying about Russian interference are sore loosers. The problem is not the American electorate being exposed to facebook ads, the problem is that they are easily swayed by facebook ads. This is the inevitable result of years and years of "everyone should vote" propaganda. No! Everyone should not vote; the right of everyone to vote should be protected strongly but people who don't take the time to study politics and the issues have no damn business at the polls. Voting is right! not a responsibility. If you don't want to put the effort in there should be no shame in that but at the same time its irresponsible to weigh in at all if the totality of information behind your opinion is a facebook meme.
The correct answer is to start educating people what voting is for and what its not for. Its for allowing those who want to take the time to contribute to informed policy making access to do so; its not for choosing the "Next top President" or electing "The first XXXXXX"
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
Seriously, it's time to move on -- or just leave 'social media' behind. Facebook is a gigantic, cancerous tumor, and it needs to be allowed to die.
"But ultimately no business can entirely prevent fraud,"
They care about preventing the kind of fraud where they don't get their money.
This is not that kind of fraud and so they don't give a shit.