Here's How Facebook Gained $1 Million For Ads Posting Election Lies

Forbes

The ads, live as of Wednesday, falsely claim that Democrats plan to postpone the election and insinuate that Vice President Kamala Harris might drop out of the race.    Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/emilybaker-white/2024/10/31/facebook-ads-election-misinformation/  Subscribe to FORBES: https://www.youtube.com/user/Forbes?sub_confirmation=1  Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript  Stay Connected Forbes newsletters: https://newsletters.editorial.forbes.com Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com  Forbes covers the intersection of entrepreneurship, wealth, technology, business and lifestyle with a focus on people and success.

Transcript

00:00Today on Forbes, Facebook took more than $1 million for ads sowing election lies.

00:09Just six days before the 2024 presidential election, Facebook was running hundreds of

00:13ads from pages that falsely claim that the upcoming election may be rigged or postponed.

00:20Facebook parent company Meta's ad library shows that the pages behind the ads have paid

00:25the company more than $1 million to run them.

00:28They racked up a bill of more than $350,000 for ads run in just the past week.

00:34The ads were live as of Wednesday.

00:37One of the ads features a stylized image of Vice President Kamala Harris with devil horns

00:43and an American flag burning behind her.

00:46Other ads feature images of Harris and VP candidate Tim Walz interposed with post-apocalyptic

00:52scenes and pictures of Walz and President Biden mashed up with images of prescription

00:57drugs spilling out of bottles.

00:59One features an apparently AI-generated image of a smiling Harris in a hospital room preparing

01:05to give a screaming child an injection.

01:08Another features images of anti-vaxxer and third-party candidate RFK Jr.

01:14Some of the ads question whether Harris will remain in the race and suggest that America

01:19is, quote, headed for another civil war.

01:23Meta's election rules prohibit posts containing, quote, misinformation about the dates, locations,

01:29times, and methods of voting, and, quote, misinformation about whether a candidate is

01:34running or not.

01:36And its ad rules prohibit ads that, quote, call into question the legitimacy of an upcoming

01:41or ongoing election.

01:44Many of the ads direct viewers to a page where they can purchase writings by Jim Rickards,

01:49a fringe economist turned conspiracy theorist and proponent of the New World Order conspiracy

01:54theory.

01:56Others direct people to a page falsely claiming that a, quote, uniparty will win the election

02:01for Big Pharma.

02:03Meta spokesperson Ryan Daniels said, quote,

02:11Rickards, the fringe economist, did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

02:18Forbes identified the false ads through the Meta ad library, a live repository of ads

02:22run on the company's platforms, which provides details about political advertisers and how

02:27much money they spend.

02:29Forbes did not find parallel ads in Google's ad library.

02:33TikTok and X have ad libraries in Europe, where they are required by law, but keep their

02:38U.S. advertisers, and their ad spend, secret.

02:43Meta has a fraught history with election misinformation.

02:46In 2016, Russia's Internet Research Agency used both ads and so-called organic posts

02:53on Facebook to manipulate and divide U.S. voters, steering them toward the candidacy

02:58of Donald Trump.

03:00In 2020, Facebook and WhatsApp were widely used by disgruntled supporters of former President

03:05Trump to spread so-called stop-the-steal conspiracy theories and orchestrate the January 6, 2021

03:12attack on the U.S. Capitol.

03:15Since 2021, Meta has dramatically reduced the amount of political posts that it serves

03:20to users, which may increase the power of paid political ads in reaching Facebook users

03:26with a candidate's or party's message.

03:28This year, Vice President Kamala Harris has dramatically outspent former President Donald

03:33Trump on Facebook ads.

03:35In 2020, Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, donated more than

03:41$400 million to nonpartisan election integrity groups, including the Center for Election

03:47Innovation and Research and the Center for Tech and Civic Life.

03:51The groups are focused on improving election infrastructure and do not endorse candidates.

03:57Zuckerberg does not appear to have continued his election integrity giving in 2024.

04:03For full coverage, check out Emily Baker White's piece on Forbes.com.

04:08This is Kieran Meadows from Forbes.

04:11Thanks for tuning in.

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