Facebook Shuts Down Influence Campaigns

Yesterday brought many, many headlines about Facebook; AdAge whittled it down to three.

1. "Facebook removes 5,000 ad targeting terms, from 'Passover' to 'Buddhism,'" Ad Age reports. It's the latest move from Facebook to address criticism that its ad tools could be used to discriminate against certain groups of people. As Garett Sloane writes,

"While Facebook does not categorize people by their race or ethnicity, advertisers could target people 'interested in' certain cultures. For instance, a person 'interested in Passover' could be Jewish. A bad actor could use such targeting options to discriminate against Jewish people by not showing them ads for housing, jobs and educational opportunities."

2. Facebook took down "652 fake accounts and pages that published political content," The Verge writes. "The campaigns, whose existence was first uncovered by the cybersecurity firm FireEye, have links to Russia and Iran." Twitter also suspended accounts.

3. And finally, "Facebook fueled anti-refugee attacks in Germany, new research suggests," The New York Times reports. Two researchers at the University of Warwick studied attacks against refugees in Germany, looking for possible patterns in things like demographics, wealth and newspaper sales. The Times writes:

"One thing stuck out. Towns where Facebook use was higher than average, like Altena, reliably experienced more attacks on refugees. That held true in virtually any sort of community — big city or small town; affluent or struggling; liberal haven or far-right stronghold — suggesting that the link applies universally."