DragonI

We posed as 100 senators to run ads on Facebook. Facebook approved all of them.

On the eve of the 2018 midterms, Facebook's "Paid for by" disclosure for political ads is easily manipulated.

news.vice.com

But on the eve of the 2018 midterm elections, a VICE News investigation found the “Paid for by” feature is easily manipulated and appears to allow anyone to lie about who is paying for a political ad, or to pose as someone paying for the ad.

To test it, VICE News applied to buy fake ads on behalf of all 100 sitting U.S. senators, including ads “Paid for by” by Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer. Facebook’s approvals were bipartisan: All 100 sailed through the system, indicating that just about anyone can buy an ad identified as “Paid for by” by a major U.S. politician.

But posing as 100 senators didn’t require being smart, creative, or even particularly well-funded. Receiving approval to run an ad “paid for” by a senator typically just took a few minutes. We used 10 fake Facebook pages with no content, and changed the “paid for” disclosure after each senator was approved.

Facebook rolled out the “Paid for by” tool in May “to help prevent abuse, especially during elections.” Rob Leathern underscored its importance. “This will help ensure that you can see who is paying for the ad,” he wrote at the time. “Which is especially important when the Page name doesn’t match the name of the company or person funding the ad.”

His colleague echoed that a few days ago. “When it comes to advertising on Facebook, people should be able to tell who the advertiser is and see the ads they’re running, especially for political ads,” Facebook Vice President of Ads Rob Goldman wrote on Oct. 27.