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How Facebook let fake engagement distort global politics: a whistleblower’s account , by Julia Carrie Wong,TheGuardian, 12 Apr. 2021
▻https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/12/facebook-fake-engagement-whistleblower-sophie-zhang

The inside story of Sophie Zhang’s battle to combat rampant manipulation as executives delayed and deflected

“What we have seen is that multiple national presidents believe that this activity is sufficiently valuable for their autocratic ambitions that they feel the need to do it so blatantly that they aren’t even bothering to hide,” Zhang told the Guardian.

She argues that Facebook is allowing its self-interest to interfere with its responsibility to protect democracy, and that the public and regulators need to know what is happening to provide oversight.

A Facebook spokesperson, Liz Bourgeois, said: “We fundamentally disagree with Ms Zhang’s characterization of our priorities and efforts to root out abuse on our platform.

Revealed: the Facebook loophole that lets world leaders deceive and harass their citizens , Julia Carrie Wang, TheGuardian, 12 Apr. 2021
▻https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/apr/12/facebook-loophole-state-backed-manipulation

A Guardian investigation exposes the breadth of state-backed manipulation of the platform

Facebook has repeatedly allowed world leaders and politicians to use its platform to deceive the public or harass opponents despite being alerted to evidence of the wrongdoing.

The Guardian has seen extensive internal documentation showing how Facebook handled more than 30 cases across 25 countries of politically manipulative behavior that was proactively detected by company staff.

The investigation shows how Facebook has allowed major abuses of its platform in poor, small and non-western countries in order to prioritize addressing abuses that attract media attention or affect the US and other wealthy countries. The company acted quickly to address political manipulation affecting countries such as the US, Taiwan, South Korea and Poland, while moving slowly or not at all on cases in Afghanistan, Iraq, Mongolia, Mexico, and much of Latin America.