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Facebook is banning misinformation about voting ahead of the midterms
Partisan fraudsters may have a tougher time disseminating misinformation to voters over the next 22 days, as Facebook has vowed to crack down the spread of such "fake news" ahead of November's midterm elections, Reuters reports.
Washington state sues Google and Facebook over political ad records
The state of Washington is suing Facebook and Google over their failure to provide records on political ad buyers. Local law requires that advertisers collect and store a variety of information on political advertising, including the name and address of the buyer, the total cost, and the name of the candidate, party or proposal that is being supported or opposed. The lawsuits, filed by the office of Attorney General Bob Ferguson, claim that Facebook and Google have been slipping up since 2013. They propose fines and injunctions against both companies. "Washingtonians have a right to know who's paying for the political advertising they see," Ferguson said.
Facebook locks down key data as researchers analyze Russian influence
The truth behind Facebook's involvement in Russian voter hacks continues to get more complicated. The social media company apparently knew about Russian meddling even before last year's US election. Mark Zuckerberg's company reported that 10 million people saw Russian political ads, and has handed over Russia-linked ads to Congress. According to a report in The Washington Post, however, Facebook recently scrubbed the internet of thousands of posts related to social media analyst Jonathan Albright's research that apparently concluded that at least twice as many people had seen the ads than Facebook reported.
Facebook may still not know full extent of Russian ad buys
It's been just over a week since Facebook admitted to discovering that it sold $100,000 in ads to hundreds of fake pages and accounts that were both related to each other and apparently run from Russia. Both Democratic and Republican senators are looking for some sort of public hearing on the matter. Now, according to a report by CNN Money, sources familiar with the matter say that Facebook still doesn't know the full extent of the possible fake news ring and that there still may be more ads on Facebook to this day.
Spain arrests Russian citizen for connections to US election hack (updated)
The evidence that Russia hacked the US to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election continues to grow. The latest comes from AFP, which says that that a Russian "computer expert" was arrested in Spain today at the Barcelona airport on suspicions of hacking the US presidential election campaigns. Furthermore, the US has already put in an extradition request so that the subject Piotr Levashov would have to stand trial here for his alleged crimes.
Donald Trump hosting Reddit AMA during DNC on Wednesday
If you've ever seen Donald Trump on Twitter, you probably have questions for him. Questions like, "how do you plan to force Apple to make iPhones in the US," or "do you really think Edward Snowden deserves the death penalty?" Later this week, you'll be able to ask him yourself: the Republican presidential nominee is slated to host a Reddit AMA at 7PM ET on Wednesday.
