Zuckerberg Facebook Post Says Facebook Will Fight Election Interference

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By Josh Nathan-Kazis September 14, 2018

In a lengthy statement posted Thursday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced efforts to prevent bad actors from using his social network to interfere in elections.

The statement comes amid ongoing revelations about Russian efforts to use social media to disrupt U.S. elections in 2016.

Zuckerberg wrote that Facebook has new technology to combat fake accounts, new tools to inhibit the spread of misinformation, and will make it more clear who paid for particular political ads, among other initiatives.

“In 2016, our election security efforts prepared us for traditional cyberattacks like phishing, malware, and hacking,” Zuckerberg wrote. “What we didn’t expect were foreign actors launching coordinated information operations with networks of fake accounts spreading division and misinformation.”

Zuckerberg boasted in his statement that, in recent months, Facebook has taken down “coordinated information campaigns” out of Iran, Russia, Brazil, and Myanmar.

Last week, Facebook took down two Facebook pages that had been part of an anonymous digital campaign by the Israel on Campus Coalition following queries from the Forward and ProPublica, which published a story about the campaign.

Josh Nathan-Kazis is a staff writer for the Forward. He covers charities and politics, and writes investigations and longform.

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