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Friend — Mark Zuckerberg claims he wants legislation to rein in Facebook, but he’s shown his true self yet again:
Last week, Facebook kicked top researchers from NYU’s Cybersecurity for Democracy team off their platform in an attempt to shut down one of the only tools conducting independent oversight of political ads on Facebook. NYU’s Ad Observer tool helped researchers to understand how political advertisers targeted organizations and individuals on Facebook and spread disinformation.
Facebook’s actions are unacceptable. Please join us today in condemning Facebook’s blatant efforts to silence independent researchers and take down NYU’s Ad Observer.
Facebook’s primary justification for suspending the accounts and pages of researchers is that the NYU tool uses “unauthorized means to access and collect data.”
However, users give explicit consent to collect their data when they choose to download the Ad Observer browser extension. The only sources that do not give explicit consent are the advertisers whose ads are, by definition, public.
Facebook tried to blame the ban on FTC rules — but its excuse was so poor that the acting director of the Bureau of Consumer Protection at the Commission said that particular rule didn’t even apply. Sens. Mark Warner, Chris Coons, Ron Wyden and Amy Klobuchar have also spoken out against banning the good-faith researchers.
Join us today: Demand that Facebook reinstate the accounts and pages of NYU Ad Observer researchers now.
Facebook’s actions are nothing more than an attempt to protect its advertisers from public scrutiny and to avoid further pressure to stop profiting off of ads, political and otherwise, that promote disinformation and hate.
The fact is, Facebook has always made it easy for advertisers to violate its terms of service. Facebook’s platform was central to Russian disinformation campaigns around the 2016 election. Cambridge Analytica was able to steal troves of personal user data to benefit Trump and Cruz’s presidential campaigns. Even today, Trump is still able to abuse the platform through his Team Trump PAC.
Tell Mark Zuckerberg: Allow the independent, ethical oversight of Facebook. Let NYU’s researchers do their job.
Thank you for everything you do for our movement.
Rose and the rest of the Free Press Action team
freepress.net
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