Facebook told NYU to shut down the project by the end of November. (Representative)
San Francisco:
Facebook demanded that New York University stop a research project into the platform’s targeting practices for political ads, claiming that collecting user data is a breach of terms.
“A week ago, Facebook sent me an (cease and desist order) asking us to remove AdObserver and delete our data. The public has a right to know how political ads are targeted, we don’t will therefore not respond to this request, “Laura Edelson, doctoral student and researcher at NYU Ad Observatory, said in an article Friday.
Just 10 days away from the U.S. election, Facebook is coming under scrutiny for its role in the campaign and the way candidates and political groups use the social media network to influence voters.
Researchers collect information using an extension, or plugin, called AdObserver which can be installed on a web browser and copies the Facebook ads to a public database.
Edelson and others track information such as which profiles are targeted by which types of ads.
“We informed NYU months ago that moving forward with a project to retrieve people’s Facebook information would violate our terms,” Facebook spokesman Joe Osborne said.
“Our ad library, which is viewed by over 2 million people every month, including NYU, already offers more transparency in political advertising and on issues than television, radio or any other advertising platform. digital.”
But Edelson said the system is not perfect.
“Our cybersecurity analysis shows the vulnerability of Facebook’s transparency algorithms which reveals that they routinely fail to include political ads in its public records,” she said.
California-based Facebook tightened its rules on political advertising ahead of the 2020 election. In particular, it banned attempts to undermine the electoral process and banned certain racist or xenophobic statements.
The social media network also bans all new political advertising the week before the November 3 election.
Facebook asked NYU to stop the project by the end of November, but did not say what would happen if it continued.
(This story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
