by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Online Marketing, Social Media, World
San Francisco : As Facebook, Google and Twitter prepared to face questioning on November 1 into Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election, the tech giants were planning to tell the lawmakers that the Russian content on their respective platforms reached more users than reported earlier.
According to a report in The Washington Post late on Monday, Facebook was planning to tell lawmakers that 126 million of its users might have seen content produced and circulated by Russian operatives — many times more than the company had previously disclosed about their reach.
Facebook had previously reported that nearly 10 million users had seen those ads.
Similarly, Google also acknowledged that it had found evidence that Russian operatives used the company’s platforms to influence American voters.
Google said in a blog post that it had found 1,108 videos with 43 hours of content related to the Russian effort on YouTube. It also found $4,700 worth of Russian search and display ads.
“Further, Twitter would also tell Congressional investigators that it has identified 2,752 accounts controlled by Russian operatives and more than 36,000 bots that tweeted 1.4 million times during the election. The company previously reported 201 accounts linked to Russia,” the report added.
After scrutiny by the Congressional investigators, the tech giants have been working hard to make political ads more transparent.
Facebook has vowed to make political ads more transparent, allowing users of the social network to know more about the advertisers which may include their identity and location.
“We’re going to require more thorough documentation from advertisers who want to run election-related ads,” Rob Goldman, Facebook’s Vice President of Ads said in a statement last week.
“We are starting with federal elections in the US, and will progress from there to additional contests and elections in other countries and jurisdictions,” Goldman added.
As part of the documentation process, advertisers may be required to identify that they are running election-related advertising and verify both their entity and location.
To help protect integrity of user experience on Twitter, the microblogging site has banned advertising from all accounts owned by Russia Today (RT) and Sputnik with immediate effect.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Markets, Social Media, World
Washington : Facing an intense scrutiny over the presence of Russian ads on its platform during the 2016 American presidential election, Facebook will finally hand over nearly 3,000 Russian political ads to US Congress on Monday.
According to a ReCode report, along with the Russian ads, Facebook plans to share information about the users those ads targeted and how they were paid for with the House and Senate Intelligence Committees as well as the Senate Judiciary Committee.
“All three committees are investigating the extent to which Russia may have interfered in last fall’s US presidential election,” the report added.
Facebook is facing a probe after disclosing the details about the presence of Russian political ads worth $100,000.
After an extensive legal and policy review, the social media giant recently announced that it would share 3,000 Russian ads with Congressional investigators.
Google, Facebook, and Twitter have been invited to testify to the Senate Intelligence Committee on November 1 over the Russian probe.
Facebook earlier handed over the details to Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is currently investigating claims of alleged Russian meddling in the election, included copies of the ads and details about the accounts that bought them and the targeting criteria they used.
As the probe into Moscow’s alleged meddling in the election intensifies, Twitter also announced that it has deleted over 200 fake Russian accounts and identified Russia Today of buying bought ads targeted at American users’ accounts.
In a closed-door meeting last week, Colin Crowell, Twitter’s Vice President for Public Policy, met with staff from Senate Select Committee on Intelligence and House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence to discuss the issue.
Twitter also shared with committee staff ads that three Russia Today accounts targeted to the US market in 2016.
“Based on our findings thus far, RT spent $274,100 in US ads in 2016. In that year, the three RT accounts promoted 1,823 tweets that definitely or potentially targeted the US market,” Twitter said.
Google has also launched a probe into the role its services could have played in the Russian interference.
“Google is conducting a broad internal investigation to determine whether Russian-linked entities used its ads or services to try to manipulate voters ahead of the US election,” media reports said last week.
—IANS
