Facebook and Russia

What’s the issue? Russia has been using Facebook (and Twitter, Google, Instagram, and even Pokemon Go, but here I’m going to focus on Facebook) to radicalize and divide people in the United States. According to information that Facebook has recently handed over to the government, Russia bought at least $150,000 of political advertising on Facebook (including during the 2016 election) promoting ads that Facebook says could have reached 10 million people (others estimate much higher- up to 70 million).

Why do I care? Americans are getting more of their news than ever on social media sites. In fact, 67% of Americans say they get at least some of their news on social media, and 20% say they get their news there often. However, the news they see there is more likely to be tailored to their biases, reinforcing their preconceived view of the world. What’s more, news shared on social media is held to no standard of journalistic integrity and may be grossly misleading or fake. The posts disseminated by the Russians fell into both of those categories. Some of the news and commentary they spread was real news from other outlets that they targeted to specific audiences, and some of it was fake. The sheer number of people who came into contact with the Russian posts is alarming (even at the low end of the estimates). It only took 80,000 people to swing the election for Donald Trump (although obviously not everyone who came into contact with the Russian posts was persuaded to vote for Trump or not to vote at all).

The posts Facebook turned over to the government show that the Russian posts were not all in favor of Trump. Some promoted LGBTQ rights or Black Lives Matter. Instead they seemed geared at sowing discontent among Americans and inflaming their natural divisions. This Russian meddling did not stop with the 2016 election- in fact, it continues today. And while the Russians may not always be posting in favor of Trump, they do seem to learn from him. After Trump insulted San Juan’s mayor on Twitter, Russian accounts began to circulate fake news that discredited her. Russian accounts also amplified both sides of the debate about kneeling, the national anthem, and the NFL. The Russians believe that having American society in turmoil is advantageous for them, and so they continue to push those buttons.

The question of whether Trump or anyone working with him colluded with the Russians to throw the 2016 election is still an open one. This is just a small piece of Russian meddling that has been uncovered, and the jury is still out on whether Trump provided information to the Russians to aid their Facebook targeting or any other effort.

So it’s obviously bad that a foreign power that is hostile to the United States is trying to destabilize our society through targeted posting on Facebook, but what can be done? Should we all delete our Facebook accounts (and Instagram, Twitter, Google, Pokemon Go, etc, while we are at it)? I tend to think not. For all of the bad that Facebook propagates (you can add feelings of loneliness and low self esteem to political and social manipulation), I believe the sharing of good (pictures, not fake news, articles amplifying the voice of those less heard, donation and awareness campaigns, to name a few) outweighs the bad. Of course everyone’s social media presence is a personal decision, so you’ll have to make that decision for yourself.

But if you don’t delete your account, what can we expect from Facebook? It is clear that Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook higher-ups were slow to recognize and respond to this problem. Just after the election Mark Zuckerberg said it was “pretty crazy” to think that Facebook could have had an impact on the election, and there is evidence that Facebook (and Twitter) destroyed some of the data that could have helped investigate the reach of the Russian accounts. Previously, Facebook argued that political ads on its site should not be subject to the same restrictions and regulation as on other media platforms. Facebook is now cooperating with the federal government, and has announced a series of changes regarding political advertising on the site. However, some worry that too much focus on just the political ads fails to address the larger picture- it’s not just politics that we should be worried about- hostile forces could target business or finance next (or something else entirely). And of course it’s not just Russia. The North Koreans are employing increasingly sophisticated cyber warfare, among others. So we must push Facebook to do better. Here are some steps we can take today:

What you can do if you care too:

1. Call your representatives and ask them to support a bill being proposed by Senators Amy Klobuchar and Mark Warner that would create more transparency requirements for political ads on Facebook and other social media sites.
2. Call your representatives again, and ask them to hold Facebook responsible for fake news published on its site. Not all libelous information, but just when Facebook cannot identify the author (read more about why this could work here).
3. Check for fake news before you read or share. Here is a handy guide to identifying fake news.
4. Be aware of how Facebook is manipulating what you see. Read about Facebook’s algorithms here. If you like you can download an extension for your browser that predicts the political leaning of your Facebook friends and newsfeed. Mine shows an overwhelming bias of liberal stories and liberal-leaning friends, with a few prominent conservative issues thrown in.