Facebook data leak exposes Balkan troll farm political disinformation
Troll farms reached 140 million US Facebook users per month and nearly half of all Americans in the run-up to the 2020 presidential election , according to a leaked document. Authored by former Facebook data scientist Jeff Allen and leaked to the Technology Review , the document revealed that 75 percent of US users consumed troll content not because they followed a page but because Facebook’s recommendation engine proactively served it to them. Largely based in the Balkans, the troll farms were seen to have targeted four primary groups - American Indians, Black Americans, Christian Americans, and American women - with a mixture of propaganda, misinformation and disinformation. According to the Technology Review , Allen left Facebook shortly after writing the document, partly because the company 'effectively ignored' his research. System 🤖 Recommendation system Developer: Meta/Faceboo k Country: US Sector: Politics Purpose: Scare/confuse/destabilise Technology: Content recommendation system Issue: Accuracy/reliability; Mis/disinformation Resource s 📃 Facebook (2019). How Communities are Exploited on our Platform: A Final Look at the 'Troll Farm' Pages
- Date it happened
- 2021-09-01
- Organisation involved
- Product, system or model
- Facebook recommendation system
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