FACEBOOK’S announcement that it will do more to detect attempts to influence elections unduly, including by forcing its advertisers to disclose more information, marks a slow about-turn for the social-media behemoth. Allegations that Russian propagandists used the platform to interfere with the presidential election were initially described by Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s boss, as a “pretty crazy idea”. But a string of revelations have put the company on the backfoot—most recently, that Russian companies, some with Kremlin ties, had purchased $150,000 worth of political adverts. This has attracted the interest of Congress and of Robert Mueller, the special counsel investigating Russian interference. Yet Facebook, despite being accused of something so serious, will probably be allowed to police itself, for now.
The agency entrusted with protecting elections and policing campaign finance is the Federal Election Commission (FEC), known by some as the “failure to enforce commission”. By law, no more than three of the six commissioners can be from the same party. Four votes are needed to change anything, and the Republican commissioners are usually opposed to the very idea of campaign-finance regulation. Don McGahn, a former FEC commissioner who is now the White House counsel, has said “I plead guilty as charged” to “not enforcing the law as Congress...Continue reading
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