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This Week's Updates:
TTP Exposes Network of Scam Pro-Trump Ads on Meta Platforms
Yesterday, CfA's Tech Transparency Project (TTP) published a report revealing that Meta has continued to approve and run advertisements for fake stimulus programs and political merchandise scams, even as the 2024 election draws near. Working with ProPublica and Columbia University’s Tow Center for Digital Journalism, which produced their own investigation, TTP identified over 110,000 advertisements placed by a network of 232 Facebook pages. These findings cast serious doubt on Meta’s ability or willingness to moderate its advertising engine, which generated 98% of the company’s revenue in the third quarter of 2024.
As TTP notes in its report, many of the scam advertisements used edited footage of Joe Biden, Donald Trump, or Barack Obama to deceive users and lend the scams an air of legitimacy. While most of the advertisers appeared to be American, dozens of pages in the scam network had managers based in foreign countries, suggesting that the accounts had been hacked or stolen. Rather than enforcing policies designed to prevent coordinated inauthentic behavior, though, Meta has turned a blind eye to large Facebook black markets used to buy and sell stolen accounts and identity documents. These compounding content moderation failures have made it easy for bad actors to promote scams and disinformation – all while generating advertising revenue for Meta. In total, the company made more than $13 million from this specific network of scammers, allowing them to violate the platform’s advertising standards and reach an unknown number of users.
Facebook Auto-Generating Pages for Militia Groups
In May, WIRED contributor Tess Owen reported that Meta was allowing militia groups to return to its platforms, giving them a channel to promote their activities and recruit new members. At the time, a Meta spokesperson told WIRED that the company was working in an “adversarial space,” but would continue investing in “people, technology, research, and partnerships” to keep its platforms safe. Now, follow up reporting has revealed that Meta is still failing to remove accounts and pages associated with paramilitary organizations. Facebook also appears to have automatically generated pages for some militia groups, including “American Patriots Three Percent,” also known as AP3 or “Three Percenters.” The pages were generated by gathering input from users, despite Meta’s longstanding ban on AP3 and its affiliate groups.
TTP contributed original research for both WIRED stories, providing links to hundreds of Facebook groups and pages used by militia organizations. Rather than invest in the personnel needed to proactively discover this content, though, Meta seems content to sit back and watch its platforms become recruiting tools for anti-government militias, white supremacists, and other violent organizations.
Taxpayer-Funded Anti-Abortion Group Sponsors Tailgate in Indiana
This week, Indiana Democrats called on the state’s department of health to investigate a tailgate partysponsored by Real Alternatives, an anti-abortion organization which allocates funds to unregulated pregnancy clinics (UPCs). Real Alternatives has administered the Indiana Pregnancy and Parenting Support Services Program since 2015, receiving millions of dollars given to the state through the federal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. That funding is then passed along to “Service Provider Contractors,” i.e. UPCs and other organizations that “support childbirth over abortion.” These UPCs are often non-medical clinics that do not provide comprehensive reproductive care, and have no obligation to safeguard the privacy or wellbeing of their clients.
Real Alternatives operated a similar program in Pennsylvania until 2023, when Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) terminated the contract. CfA had previously urged Pennsylvania officials to withdraw funding from the organization, which dispersed taxpayer dollars to UPCs that were forbidden to even discuss contraception with patients. Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer (D) also eliminated state funding to Real Alternatives in 2019, following a CfA complaint that alleged financial mismanagement and self-enrichment. Now, Real Alternatives seems to be promoting its work via tailgate parties and ticket raffles– a development which raises serious questions about the organization’s financial practices.
