#russianinfluence

Why Facebook MUST inform users targeted by Russia

Long story short, according to this highly credible report, Russian operatives created fake web sites to honeypot American voters who would be susceptible to fake news and propaganda.

They then used Facebook's "Custom Audiences" tool to target some 10 million Facebook users specifically and personally (i.e. by name) with more than 3,000 ads, many of which look like 4chan-like troll memes.

The purposes of this campaign were apparently to make each targeted user "an agent of influence — a potentially sympathetic American who could spread Russian propaganda with other Americans" and also to inflame existing divisions within US society.

As the article says: "People caught up in this web of tracking and disinformation would have had no indication that they had been singled out or that the ads came from Russians."

I call on Facebook to immediately disclose (privately) to targeted users that they were identified by the Russians as susceptible to propaganda, and that they were potentially manipulated by Russia's propaganda.

If Facebook doesn't do this, I call on Congress to force them to do so.

Do you agree or disagree?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/russians-took-a-page-from-corporate-america-by-using-facebook-tool-to-id-and-influence-voters/2017/10/02/681e40d8-a7c5-11e7-850e-2bdd1236be5d_story.html