Last year, news broke about evidence confirming Russian buyers used Facebook advertising as propaganda leading up to the 2016 presidential election.
In response, Facebook presented Congress 3,000 Russian-purchased ads through 470 phony pages and accounts intended to exploit America's racial divisions.
Facebook said at least $100,000 was spent for this purpose, a mere fraction of its political advertising during the 2016 campaign.
This motivated the House Intelligence Committee last November to release a sample of Facebook ads the Russian government-affiliated Internet Research Agency, a St. Petersburg troll farm, purchased about issues like immigration, religion, and race, for and against presidential contenders Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Jill Stein, and Donald Trump.
More than 11 million people between 2015 and 2017 viewed these ads.
Moreover, Russia used Facebook ads to help Trump win Michigan and Wisconsin, and to exploit our racial and religious divides.
One might assume going forward Facebook would prevent its format from being used to disseminate such lies and political propaganda.
However, the contrary is the case.
Last week Facebook quietly changed its advertising policies to make it easier for politicians to use the popular social-media site to promulgate blatant lies.
And the Trump campaign wasted no time doing just that.
The following attack on former Vice President Joe Biden posts a video that states, falsely:
Under Facebook's new rules, there are now 32 "Prohibited Content" categories.
Number 13 on the list is "Misinformation," which explains:
"Facebook prohibits ads that include claims debunked by third-party fact checkers or, in certain circumstances, claims debunked by organizations with particular expertise. Advertisers that repeatedly post information deemed to be false may have restrictions placed on their ability to advertise on Facebook. Find out more about Fact Checking on Facebook here.
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