Facebook is going to provide information in Congress about the ads purchased from Russia to influence the last elections. During a live broadcast on his platform, Mark Zuckerberg has explained that in the future they will give more information on how it has been buying propaganda in the service and how they will correct it in the future. During the seven minutes of his speech he explained that soon Facebook users will be able to know who has paid for the policy announcements. “I care a lot about the democratic process and protect its integrity.” I’m worried they’ll use our tools to undermine our democracy. “We cannot support it,” he declared.
“The public deserves to know in a concrete way what happened in the 2016 elections.” We have concluded that sharing the ads we have discovered fits our obligation to protect consumer information, “wrote Colin Strech, Facebook’s legal manager on a corporate blog.
Zuckerberg, who was of low paternal after the birth of his second daughter, has issued from his office in Menlo Park: “There will always be bad people in this world and we can not stop them interfering in governments, but we can make it more complicated.” “We’re going to make it a lot harder.”
Online ads lack the same control as television or radios. During this week the Democrats have asked Facebook and several Internet companies to assume more stringent rules. They are expected to be called to the Senate in October to better explain the situation. Next Wednesday Twitter will declare behind closed doors.
Facebook has already advanced some data, more than 3,000 accounts related to the Russian plot bought publicity to influence voters. In July they made sure not to have proof of it. A month later, they announced that 470 profiles and pages were related to the Russian Internet Research agency, an organization linked to the Kremlin.
The founder of the social network has devasted his plans to stop this anomaly. During this year they will hire 250 people for the security team and engage in relations with electoral commissions around the world, as an example the current collaboration Germany. But he also recognized his limits: “We cannot see what someone is going to say before he puts it and I don’t think it is something that can take on our society.” Freedom also means not having to ask permission and say what we think. “If the rules of our community or the law are broken, then they do have to take the consequences.”
