Did You Like or Follow Russian Propaganda on Facebook? Now You Can Find Out.

On Friday, Facebook released a limited tool allowing users to see what Russian propaganda they may have previously liked or followed on the popular platform.

As The New Civil Rights Movement has reported, Facebook told Congress in September that Russian operatives had purchased over $100,000 in ads ahead of the 2016 presidential election. The effort was made to damage voters’ faith in the U.S. election system and to bolster the likelihood that Donald Trump would win the presidency.

Ads were also purchased in support of Jill Stein and Bernie Sanders, and Twitter also confirmed that the same Russian operatives utilized hundreds of accounts on Twitter to further push their propaganda.

The tool, available here, details Facebook’s action plan for “protecting legitimate political discussion within our community and fighting foreign interference in elections.” Currently, users may only use the feature on the desktop version of Facebook.

Facebook notes:

We’ve taken down fake accounts and Pages created by foreign actors attempting to interfere in the 2016 US Elections. Check to see if you liked or followed a Facebook Page or Instagram account created by the Internet Research Agency – the organization associated with these accounts and Pages.

Facebook further detailed the measures taken to strengthen the enforcement of keeping Facebook authentic, noting that 10,000 people had been hired to combat fake accounts. Policies were also updated to “block ads from Pages that repeatedly share stories marked as false by third-party fact-checking organizations.”

“We take this issue very seriously and are committed to doing our part to help prevent foreign interference in the future,” Facebook concluded.

The introductory tool was criticized by some, however, particularly for its timing and limited availability:

Nailed it. h/t @donie @brianstelter https://t.co/SmEcNLOcKV pic.twitter.com/ANLQwPeZJM

— Jason Kint (@jason_kint) December 23, 2017

Did you like or follow any Russian propaganda?

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