Did Facebook's Zuckerberg violate any laws by

[BigmanPigman]

allowing Russian propaganda and fake news to use Facebook to influence the election?

[Raster]

1. Damned good question...

...what did Zuck know and when did he know it?

[Orrex]

2. Define "influence the election"

I'm not sure that Facebook is required to circulate only legitimate, corroborated news stories, nor am I sure that the company is barred from accepting (or even seeking) ad revenue from foreign entities.


What law might he have broken, exactly?

[BigmanPigman]

3. I don't know about the law so that is why I asked.

Mueller (and Congressional committees) want to interview him.

[Orrex]

5. Fair enough (nt)

[Eliot Rosewater]

6. It is illegal, I am pretty sure, for anybody here to accept or use foreign money

on election campaigning.

Maybe we can find out about that.

[Voltaire2]

10. No it is illegal for candidates to do that. Not "anybody".

Facebook is not a candidate.

[Orrex]

16. That's my sense as well.

Overall (i.e., not this OP specifically), the whole "what Facebook did is illegal" argument sounds very much like "Facebook violated my First Amendment rights."

Facebook ain't the government, so it isn't bound by the same strictures.

The Russia propaganda-ad thing certainly appears to be unsavory, but I haven't seen a convincing argument that it's illegal.


That's not to say that such an argument doesn't exist and isn't obvious to anyone who knows what they're talking about, and if they'd care to spell it out for me I'd be most grateful.

[Not Ruth]

4. Treason? Collusion?

[Voltaire2]

9. neither?

facebooks sells ads and sells promotion services. There is no law against the Russian government buying those services. There is discussion now about requiring disclosure, but that would be new legislation. It would also be totally ineffective as it is on TV. Front organizations would do the purchasing and the ad would disclose those names.

[PoliticAverse]

7. Washington Post article on the issue...

Did Facebook ads traced to a Russian company violate U.S. election law?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2017/09/07/did-facebook-ads-traced-to-a-russian-company-violate-u-s-election-law/

[Voltaire2]

8. I rather doubt it.

[pnwmom]

12. FEC regulations require ads to say who paid for them. And there is no online exemption. n/t

[Voltaire2]

13. Facebook asked in 2012 and got no response as far as I can tell.

Twitter is exempt because of the word count limit.

Google just requires a url. It is up to the ad buyer to comply with the FEC disclosure regs at the link.

Most of the russian efforts were small ads on facebook and armies of robots on twitter. Facebook and twitter didn't break any clear regs from the FEC.

[pnwmom]

11. He might have. I don't remember where I read this, but some non-profit is arguing

that Facebook and the other online media are violating FEC laws that require political ads to say who sponsored them. The claim is that FB asked for an internet exemption from that law and didn't receive it.

[Voltaire2]

14. as I posted above, they got no response at all from the FEC.

The situation is currently "nobody has a clue".

In a memo—set to be discussed at the Federal Election Commission’s next open meeting Sept. 14—Democratic Commissioner Ellen Weintraub said the agency should reopen a rulemaking proposal that has lingered since 2011 regarding disclaimers on online ads. Weintraub called for a new round of public comments and a hearing in light of Facebook’s Sept. 6 revelation it ran thousands of political ads financed by Russian sources during the 2016 presidential race.

Current FEC rules require disclaimers saying who paid for broadcast and print campaign ads. But many online political ads don’t carry such disclaimers, and the FEC has struggled for years to define legal requirements in this area.

https://www.bna.com/fec-commissioner-urges-n57982087694/

The FEC has simply failed to provide regulatory guidance for internet advertising.

[msongs]

15. DU runs ads. does DU vet preview research and source all the ads here? nt