Facebook: Foreign Governments Used Its Social Platform To Influence Political Discourse

NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is acknowledging that governments or other malicious non-state actors are using its social network to influence political sentiment in ways that could affect national elections.

It's a long way from CEO Mark Zuckerberg's assertion back in November that it was "pretty crazy" to think that false news on Facebook influenced the U.S. presidential election. It's also a major sign that the world's biggest social network is continuing to grapple with its outsized role in how the world communicates, for better or for worse.

In a paper posted online on Thursday, Facebook security researchers and its chief security officer said the company will monitor the efforts of those who try to hurt "civic discourse" on its service, whether that's governments or other groups. It is also looking to identify fake accounts, and says it will notify people if their accounts have been targeted by such cyberattackers.

"(We) have had to expand our security focus from traditional abusive behavior, such as account hacking, malware, spam and financial scams, to include more subtle and insidious forms of misuse, including attempts to manipulate civic discourse and deceive people," the report states. It was written by researchers Jen Weedon and William Nuland and Facebook exec Alex Stamos and titled "Information Operations and Facebook."

The team defined "information operations" as any actions taken by governments or other actors to "distort domestic or foreign political sentiment" to achieve a strategic purpose. Such operations can include the dissemination of false news and disinformation and the use of fake-account networks aimed at manipulating public opinion through a variety of means.

Using the 2016 U.S. presidential election as an example, Facebook said it uncovered "several situations" where malicious actors used social media to "share information stolen from other sources, such as email accounts, with the intent of harming the reputation of specific political targets."

The company did not name the actors or the victims, but it said its data "does not contradict" a January report by the U.S. Director of National Intelligence that Russia tried to meddle with the U.S. election.

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