'Suspicious' Groups Were Big Buyers of Facebook Political Ads
New research points out a disturbing trend among political ads bought on Facebook: the lack of a public paper trail.
During the 2022 ballot, paid political ads on divisive topics were often sponsored past "suspicious groups" that left no information virtually their truthful identity, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The team examined over 5 million paid ads on Facebook with the assistance of 9,000+ volunteers who installed a tracking tool designed to capture ads over their Facebook accounts from Sept. 28 to Nov. eight, 2022. The research team then focused on a sample of 37,000 divisive political ads and attempted to trace who bought them.
The data helped identified 228 groups that bought ads around hot-push button issues, just simply 106 could be traced to actual organizations similar media websites, nonprofits or "astroturfing" political groups.
The remaining 122, which bought thousands of political ads, were alleged "suspicious" because the research team found no show of their existence exterior Facebook.
One out of six "suspicious" advertisers turned out to be Russian actors, according to data released past a Congressional committee investigating Russian attempts to exploit US social media platforms during the 2022 election.
The research underscores the demand for more transparency around digital political ads, said the nonprofit Campaign Legal Eye.
"As this peer-reviewed study demonstrates, secretive groups were able to run tens of thousands of digital political ads without detection because of massive loopholes in our campaign finance laws," said Brendan Fischer, a director at CLC, in a statement.
It'southward why his group supports the Honest Ads Act, which lawmakers unveiled in Oct. If passed, the new legislation would require internet companies to reveal the buyers of online political ads.
Earlier this month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he supports the legislation. In the meantime, the company has said it'll verify the identities of all political advertisers on the platform. This includes anyone who wants to purchase ads around hot-button problems.
Source: https://sea.pcmag.com/news/20641/suspicious-groups-were-big-buyers-of-facebook-political-ads
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