Headline June 15, 2018/ ''' *FACEBOOK'S -PERSISTENT- GAMESTERS* '''

''' *FACEBOOK'S -PERSISTENT- 

GAMESTERS* '''

FACEBOOK IS BEING driven by its failure in the 2016 American presidential election to stop  Russian agents from using the platform to spread divisive messages to voters.

In the aftermath, the company announced changes, including working with independent fact-checkers and starting a news literacy campaign to help people spot disinformation.

Facebook also banned political ads from foreign groups in some elections. including Ireland's recent abortion referendum.

The largest effort has focused on authenticating and cataloging campaign ads on Facebook. The system is work in progress, executives in a recent call with reporters.

But they said they hoped the transparency requirements would deter bad actors especially those from foreign nations - from meddling in American election, and maybe all elections..............

Regina Bateson had just finished an Easter egg hunt with her children on April 1 when her phone started buzzing. Take a look at Facebook, messages from her friends and colleagues urged.

Ms. Bateson a democrat for running for Congress in the Californian primary one last Tuesday, quickly opened up the social network There, she saw what appeared to be a news article that painted her underhandedly trying to torpedo the campaign of a rival Democratic candidate.

When Ms. Bateson clicked through the article, she was directed to a Facebook page run by Sierra Nevada Revolution, a local progressive group she had clashed with in the past.

The article was not a news story, she found, but a political ad paid for by Sierra Nevada Revolution.

And while Facebook rolled out new rules on April 6 mandating that campaign ads be clearly labeled and say who had purchased them, Sierra Nevada Revolutions's ad about Ms. Bateson continued to be targeted to local voters throughout that month without any of those disclosures.

''It was a perfectly targeted negative campaign ad, but the average person had no idea who had really written it or what their motivation were,'' said Ms. Bateson, 35, who is running in the Fourth Congressional District, a mountainous stretch of land between Sequoia National Forest and Lake Tahoe.

She said she was frustrated by Facebook's inability to label the so-called article as a political ad.

Ms. Bateson's experience underscores Facebook's difficulties as the Silicon Valley company aims to prevent manipulation of its ad system in elections, especially as the midterm loom this November.

While the company has introduced many and several measures to improve the transparency of  political ads on its platform, some groups and individuals appear to be finding ways to flout the new restrictions - and Facebook has not been able to catch them.

That raises questions about whether, there are other gaps. Apart from improving transparency of  political ads, Facebook has announced that it will not run a campaign ad in the United States unless it -

Verifies the advertiser through a Social Security number, that it will keep a public archive of all  political ads so they are easily searchable and that it has added a ''paid for'' label atop campaign ads. 

Paul Smith, the administrator of Sierra Nevada Revolution's Facebook page, said that despite  Facebook's  efforts, he was able to place other political ads - some about Ms. Bateson and some about other issues - without labeling them.

He didn't say how many.

There's another potential loophole in Facebook's rules. It appears that one person can go through the verification process and then give the account to someone else.....................

Mr. Smith, for instance, said that while  Facebook had authenticated him as a political advertiser, he had later handed over control of Sierra Nevada Revolution's account to others.

That meant others could have used his Facebook verification id and post political ads without the  social network's knowing that it was not him.

''They don't know we are five people running it, or however many,'' Mr. Smith said in a phone interview.

The Honor and Serving of the latest Global Operational Research on Social Networks, Facebook, Intrusions, Political ads, and Elections continues. The World Students Society thanks author and researcher, Sheera Frenkel.

With respectful dedication to all users of Facebook, Students, Professors and Teachers of the world. See Ya' all  ''register'' on The World Students Society and Twitter- !E-WOW! -the Ecosystem 2011:

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