Whistleblower says Facebook allows global politicians to manipulate the platform
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A new investigation accuses Facebook Inc. of allowing world leaders and politicians to use the platform to manipulate the public, despite being told about it by staff.
In a report by The Guardian today, the newspaper said it had seen internal documents that revealed how Facebook treated 30 cases across 25 countries in which politicians had surreptitiously used Facebook either to drum up support for themselves or to attack opponents.
“The investigation shows how Facebook has allowed major abuses of its platform in poor, small and non-western countries in order to prioritize addressing abuses that attract media attention or affect the U.S. and other wealthy countries,” said the report. It added that in the countries of Afghanistan, Iraq, Mongolia, Mexico, or in parts of Latin America, cases were either ignored or pushed to the back of the pile.