United States: Facebook recognizes flaws in its policy against deceptive election ads
Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg during his hearing before a US Senate committee on October 28, 2020. Greg Nash / Pool via REUTERS
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3 min
The American giant on Monday conceded that it was having difficulty removing certain misleading advertisements on the US presidential election after an article showing that deleted ads had been rebroadcast on the platform.
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Facebook said it took further action after it uncovered loopholes that allowed activists to repost banned ads because they did not meet fact-check criteria.
The
Wall Street Journal
has indeed revealed that certain messages of support for President Donald Trump containing false information about his Democratic rival Joe Biden had been shared by a conservative group, the American Principles Project, although
they had previously been blocked
.
These ads falsely claimed that
Joe Biden
supports the far-left Antifa movement and is in favor of transgender surgery for children.
Facebook removed these ads again after the US daily article.
"
When a reviewer puts a review on an ad, we label and demote it while removing the ad status from it - that goes for all reviews,
" a Facebook spokesperson told the AFP.
"
We have checked these ads and we are taking action against those who break our rules while trying to improve our detection system for ads similar to those already reviewed,
" he added.
Mess
Last week, Facebook had to face a mess in the implementation of a ban on political ads in the week before the US election.
Republicans and Democrats had accused the group of putting them at a disadvantage.
“
We are investigating ads that have been suspended in error, and questions from advertisers who are having trouble adjusting their campaigns.
We are working to find a quick solution to these problems,
”tweeted Rob Leathern, a Facebook ad product manager.
Scrutinized for its management of political disinformation on its platform, Facebook tightened the screws before Tuesday's poll, ensuring that it redouble its efforts to prevent any damage to the electoral process.
(With AFP)
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