Facebook Expands Ad Monitoring Technology Ahead Of Upcoming Elections

Facebook is preparing to build up programs around the world that will focus on preventing campaign meddling and tamp out misinformation efforts as various elections ramp-up, Axios reported Monday.

The company has struggled in recent years to get ahead of instances where people have engaged in campaigns to misinform American voters. Regulators are also breathing down Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s neck, principally because of the company’s use of people’s personal data.

Facebook announced on its website that the company is adding fact-checking programs and artificial intelligence to allay concern about future election-year tampering. It is launching transparency tools in India and Ukraine ahead of elections there.

Zuckerberg’s empire began investigating Facebook ads that were viewed millions of times during Alabama’s 2017 midterm elections. The company prohibits “misrepresentation,” which includes any actions designed to purposely mislead people about the origin of content.

Some of the offending Facebook pages surreptitiously inserted left-leading messages into the news feeds of conservative voters across the country ahead of the midterm elections. It was the second such effort to sway Alabama voters during that year’s special election.

The cost of the effort totaled roughly $100,000 — the identical amount Facebook says the Russian Internet Research Agency spent trolling people on social media leading up to the 2016 presidential election.