Reported today on The Verge
For the full article visit: https://www.theverge.com/2021/8/4/22609020/facebook-bans-academic-researchers-ad-transparency-misinformation-nyu-ad-observatory-plug-in
Reported today in The Verge.
Facebook bans academics who researched ad transparency and misinformation on Facebook
Facebook has banned the personal accounts of academics who researched ad transparency and the spread of misinformation on the social network. Facebook says the group violated its term of service by scraping user data without permission. But the academics say they are being silenced for exposing problems on Facebook's platform.
The researchers were part of NYU Ad Observatory, a project created to examine the origin and spread of political ads on Facebook. As the group explained in a blog post in May, their aim is to uncover who pays for political ads and how they are being targeted. Such work has important implications for understanding the spread of disinformation on Facebook, as the company does not fact-check political ads.
To help their work, the researchers created a browser plug-in called Ad Observer, which automatically collects data on what political ads users are being shown and why those ads are being targeted to them. As per its website, the plug-in does not collect any personally-identifying information, including users' name, Facebook ID number, or friend list.
Data collected by Ad Observer is then made publicly available to researchers and journalists who use the information to reveal trends and problems on Facebook's platform. Stories directly resulting from this work include Facebook's failure to disclose who pays for some political ads, and how far-right misinformation is more engaging than misinformation from center or left sources.
Facebook offers some of this information voluntarily through its Ad Library, but not all. For example, it doesn't share data about how ads are targeted based on users' interests. People can find this for the
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