NGO: Facebook won’t detect political ads with disinformation

Global Witness claims that Facebook is failing to detect and remove political ads with disinformation. Following the upcoming Brazilian elections, the NGO has been able to post Facebook ads containing political misinformation.

The non-governmental organization Global Witness placed says ten advertisements on Facebook in response to the upcoming elections in Brazil. Five of those advertisements contained false information about the elections taking place in that country in October, such as the wrong date on which Election Day falls or incorrect information about how Brazilians can vote. Five other ads aimed to undermine confidence in the Brazilian electoral system.

According to Global Witness, an ad was still blocked by Facebook’s advertising service that previously had promised that she would monitor the placing of political advertisements more strictly in Brazil, among other places. This ad was later approved and this happened without Global Witness taking any action.

The NGO also criticized Facebook for other criticisms. The NGO was able to place advertisements without the accounts with which they did so having been verified. According to Facebook’s policy, that should not be allowed. The NGO also did not have to specify who paid for the advertisement during the publication process; that information could be requested by users. The NGO placed the ads from Nairobi and London and, according to them, that should also have ringed a bell with Facebook. The fact that Global Witness hadn’t used a Brazilian payment method should also have prompted Facebook to act.

Facebook says it has a Elections Operations Center established. This center must counter the spread of disinformation on its platforms during elections in the US, Brazil, India and Europe, among others. With additional measures, the platform also wants to offer more transparency about advertisements that deal with social topics or about politics.