Throughout the 2016 election cycle , American voters were inundated with political ads on Facebook like they had never been before . Among those most seditious were those purchased by foreign player with an heart on sow discord and infusing bad blood into what was , admittedly , already a soured electoral season .
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has ( tardily ) recognized the power of his program to act upon elections and shape national conversation — and is , therefore , purportedly occupy step to better the ways in which Facebook share with set about political sabotage .
But the stakes are gamey — the highest , in fact . And so , it ’s fair to take up we ’ll see more of the same shady business again this election year — if not by strange government , then by our own political family . This presents us with an opportunity to keep an eye on crooked activeness on Facebook for ourselves because , if anything , we knowwhat it seem likenow . What ’s more , we can start to do it today , and not months after the election have passed .
To that target , Gizmodo is proud of to announce a new quislingism with ProPublica , recipient of the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for public military service , and other newsroom around the creation , for the purpose of shine a light on Facebook in procession of the coming midterm elections . Using tools create by ProPublica , Gizmodo will be able to keep and analyze X of one thousand of political ads .
Doing so will help us cover on the fake , strange , and delusory ads that are flooding our feeds virtually every moment of the mean solar day .
And that , reader , is where you arrive in : ProPublica’sPolitical Ad Collectorrelies entirely on a internet of volunteer users , such as yourself , to gather ads for itsdatabase , which you’re able to also peruse at any time . Given that , we ’re here to solicit your help .
download ProPublica ’s browser app add - on ( forFirefoxorChrome ) will allow you to conduce to this database . Here ’s what you need to know :
moreover , the Political Ad Collector isopen - sourceand can be scrutinise by anyone .
ProPublica ’s puppet has already been used to situate political ad that wereactually scams and malware ; ads that are ignoring Union election rules by failing to expose whopaid for and okay them ; special counsel Robert Mueller’sfake Facebook page ; and , for kicks , this hilarious ad trumpet howawesome atomic power isfor the environment used to target vegan ¯_(ツ)_/¯.
As ProPublica notes : “ Facebook gives users more data about why a special advertising is aim to them than other on-line platform provide to their customers . Our prick will also collect that targeting information provided by Facebook , which may help illuminate what viewership the ads are trying to reach . ”
permit ’s be real : Facebook will be a sump of subversion , knavery , and counteract in the weeks and months to come , no matter how many tools and moderators they throw at it . We trust you ’ll help us suss it out .
For more selective information , read ProPublica ’s scout onhow it all worksandwhy it matters .
Download links :
Chrome
Firefox
Got a tip ? Shoot me an email:[email protected ]
Daily Newsletter
Get the best tech , science , and civilization intelligence in your inbox daily .
News from the future , delivered to your present tense .
You May Also Like
