Will Zuckerberg’s apology help Facebook get over its ad controversy?
Recently, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg had sought forgiveness after he was criticised for failing to block fake news and Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. Facebook also handed over 3000 plus advertisements to investigators in order to address the ad row
Facebook has started implementing changes to its advertising systems in order to thwart any kind of misuse of its platform in future. As part of this process, the social media giant has handed over 3000 plus advertisements to investigators. These ads were reportedly bought by a Russian company to influence US politics. According to Facebook spokesperson, “Many appear to exploit racial and social divisions and exploit ugly stereotypes. We find this interference deeply offensive.”
In his recent post, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg had sought forgiveness after he was criticized for failing to block fake news and Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. His post read, “I ask forgiveness and I will try to be better. For the ways my work was used to divide people rather than bring us together, I ask forgiveness and I will work to do better.”
According to a report published on TechCrunch, Facebook’s disclosure to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and the Senate Judiciary Committee will include information on the ads’ content and targeting as well as the accounts that paid approximately $100,000 for them to run between 2015 and 2017 in the U.S. It previously announced these ads were tied to 470 accounts and Pages associated with a Russian entity known as the Internet Research Agency.
The report also stated that Facebook believes that congressional investigators for the three committees are best placed to review the ads and make determinations on them based on their access to classified intelligence and information from all relevant companies and industries, beyond Facebook’s own internal investigation. It is also learnt that Facebook is working with other technology giants like Google and Twitter to counter misleading online ads.
Sharing his thoughts about the ad row, Apurva Chamaria, Vice President and Head of Corporate Marketing, HCL Technologies says, “Facebook's decision to add “more human review and oversight” to its automated systems to prevent further misuse would do more to ensure that offensive content (including that which attacks people for their race or religion) is not allowed to be used to target ads is a positive development. ProPublica broke the story but all credits to Facebook for acknowledging the issue and trying to fix it. Facebook is one of the largest advertising platforms in the world and these steps announced might not be enough to stop the misuse of its platform. They need to quickly take many other steps including creating a crowdsourcing platform to encourage Facebook users to report abuses of its ad system.”
According to Vikas Parihar, President – Digital Integration, FCB India, “It’s not about policy, it’s about the balance between freedom of speech and hate speech with an open mind and more relevance. How can we justify the policy created by Facebook and make sure it is not biased to certain subgroups? Are we ready to give that control to Facebook as a nation and how are we going to create a policy for Facebook and similar platforms, and who is monitoring them; that’s the bigger question.”
Experts also believe that Facebook will require its human and machine ad-reviewers to pay greater attention to the complete circumstances around ad purchases and their intended audience.
In fact, Facebook had in 2011 sought from the Federal Election Commission an exception to a rule that would have required the site to include disclaimers on all political ads. Facebook has now stated that it was enhancing its automated ad review systems to catch improper ads earlier and more often, while also adding more than 1,000 people to its global ad review teams to enhance the manual review process.
In his recent post, Facebook Founder Mark Zuckerberg had sought forgiveness after he was criticized for failing to block fake news and Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. election. His post read, “I ask forgiveness and I will try to be better. For the ways my work was used to divide people rather than bring us together, I ask forgiveness and I will work to do better.”
According to a report published on TechCrunch, Facebook’s disclosure to the House and Senate Intelligence Committees and the Senate Judiciary Committee will include information on the ads’ content and targeting as well as the accounts that paid approximately $100,000 for them to run between 2015 and 2017 in the U.S. It previously announced these ads were tied to 470 accounts and Pages associated with a Russian entity known as the Internet Research Agency.
The report also stated that Facebook believes that congressional investigators for the three committees are best placed to review the ads and make determinations on them based on their access to classified intelligence and information from all relevant companies and industries, beyond Facebook’s own internal investigation. It is also learnt that Facebook is working with other technology giants like Google and Twitter to counter misleading online ads.
Sharing his thoughts about the ad row, Apurva Chamaria, Vice President and Head of Corporate Marketing, HCL Technologies says, “Facebook's decision to add “more human review and oversight” to its automated systems to prevent further misuse would do more to ensure that offensive content (including that which attacks people for their race or religion) is not allowed to be used to target ads is a positive development. ProPublica broke the story but all credits to Facebook for acknowledging the issue and trying to fix it. Facebook is one of the largest advertising platforms in the world and these steps announced might not be enough to stop the misuse of its platform. They need to quickly take many other steps including creating a crowdsourcing platform to encourage Facebook users to report abuses of its ad system.”
According to Vikas Parihar, President – Digital Integration, FCB India, “It’s not about policy, it’s about the balance between freedom of speech and hate speech with an open mind and more relevance. How can we justify the policy created by Facebook and make sure it is not biased to certain subgroups? Are we ready to give that control to Facebook as a nation and how are we going to create a policy for Facebook and similar platforms, and who is monitoring them; that’s the bigger question.”
Experts also believe that Facebook will require its human and machine ad-reviewers to pay greater attention to the complete circumstances around ad purchases and their intended audience.
In fact, Facebook had in 2011 sought from the Federal Election Commission an exception to a rule that would have required the site to include disclaimers on all political ads. Facebook has now stated that it was enhancing its automated ad review systems to catch improper ads earlier and more often, while also adding more than 1,000 people to its global ad review teams to enhance the manual review process.
