Reporter Posed as Cambridge Analytica To Run Political Ads on Facebook. Facebook, To No One's Surprise, Failed To Catch That They Were Frauds. (businessinsider.com)

From a report: Facebook's new political ad transparency tools allowed Business Insider to run adverts as being "paid for" by Cambridge Analytica, the political consultancy that dragged Facebook into a major data scandal this year. The investigation demonstrates that political advertising on Facebook is still open to manipulation by bad actors, even with greater efforts at transparency. This is despite commitments from chief executive Mark Zuckerberg to solve the company's misinformation problem. Vice first reported last week that the Facebook political ads tool could be manipulated, with the publication securing approval to buy fake Facebook ads on behalf of US Vice President Mike Pence, terrorist group ISIS, and 100 US senators. Business Insider carried out a similar test, setting up false political ads that were captioned as being "paid for by Cambridge Analytica," the defunct political advertising firm which harvested Facebook data and weaponized it during the 2016 US election. Cambridge Analytica is banned from Facebook and has gone into administration.

Comments

So what if they don't catch fraud?

[mysidia]

Facebook is not law enforcement.

This is no different from most businesses... If you place a pickup order under your neighbor's name, then go to the restraurant to pick up your order and tell them it's your neighbor's name and pay for cash; there's nothing gonna detect that you used a fake name.

If you get caught doing this, then they may cancel your order or close your account, but that's about it.

Re: The problem isn't Facebook

[Anonymous Coward]

The problem isn't social media. Social media is great, allowing family and friends to keep in touch in ways not previously possible. The problem is people. People have always been the problem. The internet and social media have simply allowed both the good and bad things to be amplified. If it were never invented you'd still have people spreading lies for their own gain, stoking the fires of racism to give themselves power, and stomping on the poor to make themselves wealthier. This shit has always been around, and unfortunately will probably always be around.

Symptom of the core problem

[fortythirteen]

It's more concerning how many people have their worldview shaped by Facebook ads and posts than by how those ads can be gamed.

Re:Don't care

[drinkypoo]

At least in the case of political ads, I don't care if the advertiser lies about their true identity unless the validity of the message itself depends on it (most often, it doesn't).

The attribution is part of the message. If the identity is misreported, then that's fraud.