A known network has been targeting EU voters on Meta platforms (Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and Threads) with pro-Russian propaganda in France and Germany, according to a new report by non-profit analytics organization AI Forensics.
The campaign has reached more than 38 million accounts in the last six months, with most ads not identified by Meta as political in a timely manner according to AI Forensics.
Meta’s Ad Moderation Failures
The report, titled No Embargo in Sight: Meta Lets Pro-Russia Propaganda Ads Flood the EU, was published on April 17, 2024.
It highlights tech giant Meta’s failures to tackle disinformation and misinformation on his platforms.
AI Forensics estimated that most political ads published by Meta are not labeled as such.
“According to our conservative estimate, in the 16 EU countries considered in this study, 66% of political advertisements are not declared as such, among which less than 5% are moderated by Meta as political,” the non-profit said in the report.
This leaves swathes of unmoderated political ads, some of which originate from malicious actors trying to influence European voters.
Additionally, the AI Forensics report concluded that Meta's moderation is usually inconsistent with its policy.
“Among undeclared ads that are moderated as political, we find that 60% don't actually seem to fall into Meta's guidelines. This might confuse advertisers and explain why their self-declarations are similarly inconsistent, with less than half of the ads declared as political seeming to fall in the guidelines,” the researchers wrote.
No tags.
