Facebook admits it was used by ‘malicious actors’ during US election
Facebook has admitted that “malicious actors” had created “fake personas” to spread fake news across its social network last year.
Facebook admits it was used by ‘malicious actors’ during US election.
The admission came in a report by the technology firm’s security team, which said its data “does not contradict” the US director of National Intelligence’s conclusion that Russia interfered with the US election. Facebook’s own investigation explored how foreign states are using the social network to try and sway public opinion in other countries.
Consequently, it revealed that political debate on Facebook had been tainted by “information operations” and hinted at the impact of a suspected Russian-backed cyberattack that culminated in the release of private emails between the Democratic presidential candidate Hilary Clinton and her closest advisors. While Facebook never mentioned Russia by name in the report, it did reveal how unidentified parties moved to “share information stole from other sources, such as email accounts, with the intent of harming the reputation of specific political targets”.
It also found that “fake personas were created on Facebook and elsewhere to amplify new accounts and direct people to the stolen data”. Repeated posting of the same content and coordinated likes to boost the proliferation of certain messages were also used to amplify propaganda as did groups that disguised fake news by posting it alongside genuine stories.
Despite the seriousness of Facebook’s findings, it assured that “the reach of known operations during the US elections of 2016 was statistically very small compared to overall engagement of political issues”.
The revelations come just five months after Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg branded suggestions that fake news had swayed the US election as “a pretty crazy idea”. Since then, amid mounting criticism about Facebook’s role as an arbiter of truth, it has introduced a raft of new measures to combat what it calls “information operations” it said were employed during both the US and French presidential election campaigns.
The social network suspended 30,000 accounts in France ahead of voting int he first round of the presidential election earlier the month in attempt to curb the issue.