Key points:
- On October 16 that they disabled a special plug-in for Chrome and Firefox browsers.
- Allison Hendrix, the executive, said the system violates Facebook rules banning the site’s automated bulk collection of information.
- The organization has long maintained that it is its primary concern to protect user privacy.
- Damon McCoy, an NYU professor associated with the project.
- Facebook ran ahead of the 2016 election after an outcry about its lack of accountability on political advertisements.
In a confrontation with Facebook over its demand to avoid the collection of data indicating who is micro-targeted by political advertising on the world’s largest social media website, scholars, journalists, and First Amendment lawyers are rallying behind New York University researchers.
In order to understand how Facebook has been used to serve as a conduit for misinformation and coercion, the researchers say the contested instrument is vital.
Disable of plug-in for Chrome and Firefox:
A Facebook executive requested in a letter to the researchers on October 16 that they disabled a special plug-in for Chrome and Firefox browsers that they have provided to thousands of volunteers from the Us and delete the information gathered.
The plug-in allows researchers to see which advertisements are displayed to each volunteer; Facebook allows marketers to target ads that go far beyond race, age, gender, and political affiliation based on unique demographics.
According to Allison Hendrix:
Allison Hendrix, the executive, said the system violates Facebook rules banning the site’s automated bulk collection of information.
If the takedown was not completed by November 30th, her letter threatened “additional enforcement action”.
According to Companies Spoke person:
“In an emailed statement on Saturday, company spokesperson Joe Osborne had said Facebook,” told NYU months ago that going forward with a project to scrape Facebook data from people would violate our terms.
The organization has long maintained that it is its primary concern to protect user privacy, while NYU researchers say that their instrument is designed such that the data collected from participant volunteers is anonymous.
After the Wall Street Journal first published the news on Friday, the uproar over Facebook’s threat was immediate because the ‘Ad Observer’ tool offers useful information into what advertisements target particular types of voters.
Local reporters from Wisconsin to Utah to Florida have used it to write about the presidential election on November 3.
Ramya Krishan the Advocate:
Ramya Krishnan, an advocate with the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which represents the researchers, said, “It is worrying that Facebook is trying to quash a tool crucial to exposing disinformation in the lead up with one of the most consequential elections in US history.”
The public has the right to understand what political advertisements are running and how they are targeting them. Facebook should not be permitted to be the gatekeeper of the knowledge needed to defend our democracy.
Julia Angwin Tweet:
Julia Angwin, the editor of the data-centric investigative tech news website The Markup, tweeted, “The NYU Ad Observatory is now the only window researchers have to see microtargeting details about political advertising on Facebook.”
Damon McCoy Involved in the Project:
Damon McCoy, an NYU professor associated with the project, said in a statement that the tool is a key source of data on election interference and exploitation because it enables researchers to see how certain Facebook marketers use data collected by the platform to profile people and give them disinformation on politicians and policies that are intended to manipulate or even suppress their vote.
Facebook ran ahead of the 2016 election after an outcry about its lack of accountability on political advertisements, a direct contrast to how conventional media ads are controlled, the company developed an ad database that contains information such as who paid for an ad and when it ran.
Facebook, however, does not share details on who gets the ad served.
The firm has opposed giving researchers access to the site, wherein in recent weeks, right-wing news has regularly been trending.
More than 200 researchers signed a letter to Facebook last year calling on it to remove restrictions on public-interest research and journalism which would allow the site to automate digital data collection.
