The company previously reported that an estimated 10 million users had seen ads bought by Russian-controlled accounts and pages. But Facebook has been silent regarding the spread of free content despite independent researchers suggesting that it was seen by far more users than the ads were. Facebook has said Russia’s efforts to influence the election involved 470 accounts and pages that spent more than $100,000 on 3,000 ads that reached 10 millions users. Stretch plans to characterize that content as a tiny fraction of what users see every day in their Facebook news feeds. They are first and foremost a for-profit company, but do they have a responsibility to democracy?”Dwoskin reported from San Francisco.

Source: Washington Post October 30, 2017 22:02 UTC