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How to minimise targeted advertising on social media

News & Analysis

New faith in privacy regulation? We need proof of conversion

Mr. Zuckerberg has discovered the usefulness of regulation to protect our personal data. After years of lobbying against the adoption of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and of lamenting the ills of its implementation, Facebook seems ready to embrace European data protection law and

Indian Facebook political ads overwhelmingly viewed by men

22 Feb 2019

In February 2019, an examination of Facebook's searchable database of Indian political ads showed that in India political ads on Facebook were viewed nine times more often by men than by women. Facebook's Indian user base was reported as 24% female in 2016. The reason for the disparity in ad viewing

Facebook expands advertising transparency

06 Feb 2019

In January 2019, Facebook announced that as of February 28 the site would add more information to that displayed when users click on the "Why am I seeing this?" button that appears next to ads on the service. Along with the brand that paid for the ad, some of the biographical details they'd targeted

Facebook political advertising rules block transparency NGOs

27 Jan 2019

In January 2019, the British transparency NGO WhoTargetsMe, Mozilla, and the US investigative journalism site Pro Publica reported that recent changes in the social network's code were restricting their ability to monitor political ads on Facebook. The company said the changes were part of a

Facebook extends political advertising rules to Nigeria, Ukraine, India, and EU

16 Jan 2019

In January 2019, Facebook announced it would extend some of the rules and transparency tools it developed for political advertising for upcoming spring elections in Nigeria, Ukraine, India, and the EU. In Nigeria, the site will bar electoral ads from advertisers outside the country where the

Facebook terminates two Russian fake news operations

17 Jan 2019

In January 2019, Facebook' announced it had removed multiple pages, groups, and accounts coordinating inauthentic behaviour on Facebook and Instagram that were set up by two unrelated operations originating in Russia. One of these operated 364 pages and accounts was active in the Baltics, Central

Facebook announces steps to combat fake news and deception

27 Apr 2017

In a November 2017 report, Facebook's security group outlined the steps it would take to combat new forms of misuse of the platform, including attempts to deceive people and manipulate civic discourse at low cost or risk to the organisers. Among the drivers, the group cited the global reach Facebook

Facebook boasts of 2015 Tory party electoral success

10 Oct 2015

In 2019, a prominent page on the Facebook Business site cited the British Conservative Party as a "success story" at the 2015 general election, which put the party into power with a narrow majority. The site boasted that via Facebook the Conservatives had an 80.6% reach in key constituencies, 3.5

Facebook political transparency rules block charities and small businesses

09 Dec 2018

A December 2018 analysis found that Facebook's measures for improving election security and discouraging anonymous political messages were poorly executed and inconsistently applied, and placed an unfair burden on charitable organisations and small businesses while simultaneously being easy for

US midterms show that politicians criticize Facebook but use it to campaign

02 Nov 2018

Facebook's latest tool for inspecting political ads showed that in the run-up to the US mid-term elections in November 2018, many of the same politicians who had been questioning Facebook about privacy and leaked user data were spending campaign funds on advertisements on the service. Between 2014

Advocacy

A gender lens to the anonymity on social media debate

Cases of female and gender diverse public figures being targeted with online harassment have become sadly common in the news. Female politicians are particularly affected – although journalists and in particular sports commentators are also frequently targeted as well. In some cases, the harassment

News & Analysis

Why am I seeing this?! PI asks 7 more companies..

PI has today written to Google, Instagram, Snapchat, TicTok, Twitter, YouTube, and WhatsApp to ask for more information about their steps to tell people why they are seeing ads. Facebook recently announced expanding the company's ad transparency measures to include more information about why an ad

News & Analysis

Are you serious Mr Zuckerberg?

This past weekend, in an Op-Ed in the Washington Post, Mark Zuckerberg called for new regulations to address harmful content, electoral integrity, privacy and data portability. Nine years since he proclaimed that privacy is no longer a social norm, four years since Facebook noticed broadscale

News & Analysis

Planning and participating in a protest could get you under surveillance: three technologies you should know about

Planning and participating in peaceful protests against governments or non-state actors’ policies and practices requires the capacity of individuals to communicate confidentially without unlawful interference. Surveillance technologies are affecting the right to peaceful assembly in new and often unregulated ways: in this article we focus on three technologies and practices deployed by public authorities in monitoring assemblies that raise particular concerns: IMSI catchers, facial recognition, and Social Media Intelligence (SOCMINT).

News & Analysis

Tech giants do not face enough competition, new report says

A panel of competition experts has confirmed that tech giants, like Facebook, Amazon, Google, Apple and Microsoft, do not face enough competition. We welcome the recommendations contained in the report, and we urge significant caution when it comes to solutions that will provide other companies with access to customers' data troves.