WaPo: Russians Used Facebook ‘Retargeting’ Tool to Mess with 2016 Election
From The Washington Post:
SAN FRANCISCO — Russian operatives set up an array of misleading Web sites and social media pages to identify American voters susceptible to propaganda, then used a powerful Facebook tool to repeatedly send them messages designed to influence their political behavior, say people familiar with the investigation into foreign meddling in the U.S. election.
The tactic resembles what American businesses and political campaigns have been doing in recent years to deliver messages to potentially interested people online. The Russians exploited this system by creating English-language sites and Facebook pages that closely mimicked those created by U.S. political activists.
The Web sites and Facebook pages displayed ads or other messages focused on such hot-button issues as illegal immigration, African American political activism and the rising prominence of Muslims in the United States. The Russian operatives then used a Facebook “retargeting” tool, called Custom Audiences, to send specific ads and messages to voters who had visited those sites, say people familiar with the investigation who spoke on the condition of anonymity to share details from an ongoing investigation.
Isn’t it great to know that Facebook even has such a quasi-spam method of ad targeting? Thanks so much, Mark Zuckerberg — good luck washing off that stench of treason.
For the record, Facebook has admitted that Russian ads just from the $100,000 “Internet Research Agency” buy during the election were seen by ten million U.S. voters. (www.politico.com/…)
