Facebook admits it was used by ‘malicious actors’ during US election

Facebook has said its data “does not contradict” the US Director of National Intelligence’s conclusion that Russia was behind efforts to interfere with the US election.

The social media giant made the admission in a report by its security team in which it detailed how foreign governments are using its platform to attempt to manipulate public opinion in other countries.

It comes just five months after chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the claim that fake news on Facebook had influenced the US election was “a pretty crazy idea

”.

But now the company says it is taking new measures to combat what it calls “information operations” that it said were used during both the US and French presidential election campaigns.

It says nations and organisations are using Facebook to spread misleading information and falsehoods for geopolitical goals. It described attempts to spread misinformation as well-funded and subtle.

The report uses the US election as a “case study” and outlines several situations that fit the pattern of “information operations” by “malicious actors”.

While it did not mention Russia by name in its report, it said: “Our data does not contradict the attribution provided by the US Director of National Intelligence in the report dated January 6, 2017”.


The Director of National Intelligence’s report concluded that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a campaign to influence the US presidential election and “aspired to help” Donald Trump win.

Facebook’s security report said during the election campaign fake profiles were set up to spread stolen emails and other documents.

Social media accounts were then created to amplify the information and make sure it reached as many people as possible.

“From there, organic proliferation of the messaging and data through authentic peer groups and networks was inevitable,” the report said.

Facebook said that amplification techniques included repeated posting of the same material, coordinated “likes” to boost the prominence of key postings and groups camouflaging propaganda by also posting legitimate items.

But the report included a line that said: “…the reach of known operations during the US election of 2016 was statistically very small compared to overall engagement on political issues.”

Facebook said its security team would tackle the problem by suspending or deleting false accounts which would be identified using a combination of machine learning and intelligence agency-level analysis.

The social media firm suspended 30,000 accounts in France ahead of voting in the first round of the presidential election last Sunday in an attempt to prevent the problem.