Facebook (FB -0.8%) will hire 1,000 more people to review ad buying in the wake of growing public scrutiny over whether Russia used the network to interfere in elections in the U.S. and elsewhere. The hires will come over the next year, along with more investment in software that can flag and disable ads automatically. “Reviewing ads means assessing not just the content of an ad, but the context in which it was bought and the intended audience -- so we’re changing our ads review system to pay more attention to these signals,” it says. The company faces an enforcement challenge, with more than 5M paying advertisers on its roster.
Facebook to add 1,000 hires to ad review process - Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) | Seeking Alpha
Britain is considering classifying and regulating Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) and Google (GOOG, GOOGL) as news publishers, rather than platforms. “We are looking at the role Google and Facebook play in the news environment,” says a spokesman for Prime Minister Theresa May. “As part of that work we will look carefully at the roles, responsibility and legal status of the major internet platforms.” Consultancy group Enders Analysis says 6.5M British internet users get most of their news from Facebook. Facebook shares are down 0.72%. Previously: Washington Post: Russian-bought ads spread on Google platforms (Oct. 9)
Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) cut references to Russia from a public report in April about manipulation of its platform around the presidential election, raising new questions about when the company became aware of the situation, WSJ reports. The drafting of the report sparked internal debate over how much information to disclose about Russian mischief on Facebook and its efforts to affect U.S. public opinion, according to WSJ; ultimately the report did not mention Russia at all, referring only to "malicious actors." Facebook's problems could get worse, as the full scope of how Russia used the social networking site are not yet fully known, tech investor Roger McNamee tells CNBC. It is not good enough for Facebook to say it will hire more people and punish those who misuse the social media site after the fact, McNamee says; the company instead needs to prevent the situations from happening in the first place.
In prepared testimony that it will present to Congress, Facebook (FB +1.1%) says that posts from accounts backed by a pro-Kremlin group reached 126M people at some point over a two year period -- a number equivalent to about 40% of the U.S. population. Some 29M people directly got served contact from the pro-Russian group the Internet Research Agency. Those posts traveled to the news feeds of 126M total through likes, shares and comments. The prepared testimony portrays a shocked company looking to implement solutions to prevent such an occurrence in the future. “The foreign interference we saw is reprehensible and outrageous and opened a new battleground for our company, our industry and our society,” testimony from General Counsel Colin Stretch reads.
Facebook: Russian-related posts reached 126M people - Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) | Seeking Alpha