Friday, October 6, 2017

Russians Bought Facebook Ads Linked to Black Lives Matter

Jen Abele
Editor

A Kremlin backed group, The Internet Research Agency, bought geographically targeted Facebook advertisements focused on Black Lives Matter in early 2015 or late 2016 to increase pandemonium in Ferguson, Missouri, and Baltimore reported CNN.
 "This is consistent with the overall goal of creating discord inside the body politic here in the United States, and really across the West," Steve Hall, the former CIA officer and CNN National Security Analyst, told CNN. "It shows that the level of sophistication of their targeting. They are able to sow discord in a very granular nature, target certain communities and link them up with certain issues."
 Due to the police brutality being so relevant in these geographics it was incredibly easy to inject themselves political discourse towards the Black Lives Matter Movement. The Internet Research Agency is described by the US Military “blogs and tweets on behalf of the Kremlin.”      
Facebook has previously provided the statement that “one quarter of the 3,000 Russian Ads are geographically targeted” through Facebook’s self-service ad models. The self-service allows the buyer to target their audience through specific interests, geographical locations, and demographic variety.

Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has turned over Russian bought ads to Congress. Facebook has shut down thousands of fake accounts, and continues to shut down more. Additionally,  Facebook has also gained one thousand more staff to global ad reviews. Also enhancing the automated ad review system to combat and prevent improper ads.