Since Facebook in the 2016 presidential election, the company has been doing everything it can to make its platform more "safe." However, a new report from VICE suggests otherwise.
While testing out new ad tools on Facebook's platform, VICE News tried out "Paid For." In May, Facebook made Paid For a mandatory disclosure for all types of political ads.
Facebook reportedly approved fake VICE ads, which were placed on behalf of prominent figures such as Vice President Mike Pence and Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez. Facebook also supported “Paid for by the Islamic State” ads that the news company ran.
Surprisingly, Facebook has denied “Paid for by Hillary Clinton” ads on the platform. The reason remains a mystery.
Naturally, after conducting its review, the news company reached out to Facebook to see what it had to say about all of this. Facebook’s head of product management, Rob Leathern, said in response –
“Enforcement isn’t perfect – and we can’t stop all would-be users trying to trick the system – but we’ve made it much harder and we’ll continue to improve it.”
While Facebook says foreign advertisers are not allowed to place political ads in the United States, VICE was also able to use exact copies of ads that ran during the 2016 Presidential campaign.
