Facebook to Vet UK Political Ads During 2019 Elections
April 26, 2018 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Comments Off
Facebook Inc. said it will make sure political ads on its platform will be vetted and transparent in time for England and Northern Ireland’s 2019 local elections, the company has said.
Only verified accounts will be allowed to pay for political ads, and users will be able to view all promotions paid for by a campaign — not just those targeted to them based on their demographic or “likes.”
“We’re going to provide a searchable archive of all of those ads, and show who paid for them,” Facebook Chief Technology Officer Mike Schroepfer told a U.K. parliamentary committee Thursday.
Read More: Facebook Surges After Sending Upbeat Message to Wall Street
Schroepfer is the latest to give evidence to U.K. lawmakers as part of an investigation into fake news and its impact on elections, in the wake of revelations that vast swathes of Facebook user data were shared with British data firm Cambridge Analytica.
The CTO said Facebook ads would be labeled as “political,” and that all promotions would be available to be searched in an archive the social network will keep available for seven years. Data in the archive will also show how many people may have seen each ad, and how much was paid for their display.
Understanding the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica Story: QuickTake
In a tense exchange between Damian Collins, head of the committee, about whether Facebook users can choose not to see ads from specific political parties or campaigns, Schroepfer said “there’s no category-by-category opt-out,” but that individuals could choose not to see specific ads once they’ve been shown them once.
Collins was not impressed. “That’s a weak tool to stop people getting messaging they don’t want,” he said, and suggested he thought political advertising and related user preferences should be treated very differently to those concerning general consumer interests.
The lawmaker asked why Facebook didn’t spot Russia’s use of the social network to target voters sooner. “We were slow to spot that,” Schroepfer said, adding, “I’m way more disappointed in this than you are.” The claim prompted laughs from around the interview room and a subsequent apology from the CTO. “It’s a high bar,” Collins replied.
Schroepfer said that while he was giving evidence, “we’ll likely be blocking hundreds of thousands of attempts by people from around the world trying to create accounts with automated systems.”
Later in the hearing, the CTO said Facebook did not know until last year that the person it hired to be a social psychology researcher — Joseph Chancellor — had co-founded Global Science Research, the company with Aleksandr Kogan that obtained information on Facebook users via a personality quiz app. Kogan later gave that information to Cambridge Analytica.
One of the most heated exchange of words came between Julian Knight and Schroepfer. The minister slammed the CTO, saying, “your company is the problem,” and suggested the social network tried to prevent the press telling the truth about its business.
The parliamentary committee interviewing Schroepfer has recently heard evidence from whistle-blower Christopher Wylie, former Cambridge Analytica executive Brittany Kaiser, and Kogan, the researcher who shared Facebook user data with Cambridge Analytica.
Ousted Cambridge Chief Executive Officer Alexander Nix refused to appear before the committee earlier this month, after previously agreeing to. Facebook Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg also said in March that he will not appear and that Schroepfer would fill this request.
Share and Enjoy
What to Watch as Scott Pruitt, the EPA Chief, Goes Before Congress
April 26, 2018 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
Comments Off
The congressional committees did not summon Mr. Pruitt with the specific intent of questioning him on his alleged misconduct. Rather, both events are routine budget hearings, held by the House panels with oversight over the E.P.A.’s spending and policy priorities.
But since so many of the allegations surrounding Mr. Pruitt have to do with his expenditures of agency money, an issue that has raised hackles in both parties, lawmakers are expected to question him aggressively on that spending and the questions of waste and ethics associated with it. It is expected that the chairman of the full House energy committee, Greg Walden of Oregon, and the ranking Democrat, Frank Pallone Jr. of New Jersey, will attend the morning hearing.
While Mr. Walden is a conservative Republican, he appears ready to question Mr. Pruitt pointedly, saying this week, “He’s got some tough questions to answer.” In addition to questions of spending and ethics, Mr. Pallone is expected to push Mr. Pruitt on his many moves to roll back the Obama administration’s climate change policies.
The alleged infractions
Reports of ethical lapses and lavish spending have accumulated in recent weeks. Here is a primer on the 10 investigations into Mr. Pruitt’s activities, and a graphic that breaks down the categories of infractions.
The Government Accountability Office, a watchdog agency, concluded last week that Mr. Pruitt broke the law with a purchase of a $43,000 secure telephone booth for his office. Meanwhile, Mr. Pruitt is still under fire for extensive first-class travel, including two weeks of travel in June for the administrator and his aides that cost taxpayers more than $120,000, and for spending up to $3 million on security in his first year in office.
Separately, Mr. Pruitt is under scrutiny for a renting a condo from the wife of a lobbyist who had business before the E.P.A. In addition, Mr. Pruitt appears to have used unorthodox measures, and bypassed White House approval, to give substantial raises to favored political appointees.
Meanwhile, staff members who questioned those activities were sidelined or demoted.
How Mr. Pruitt is preparing
Mr. Pruitt knows he’ll come under fire, possibly for hours at a time, on Thursday. According to a talking points memo reviewed by The New York Times, Mr. Pruitt’s strategy appears to be to place the blame for his activities on his staff.
Advertisement
Continue reading the main story
The memo suggests that Mr. Pruitt is prepared to say that he now flies coach when traveling; that others were responsible for giving two close aides who used to work for him in Oklahoma substantial pay raises; and that E.P.A. officials who were reassigned or demoted after challenging his spending all had performance issues.
How will Republicans treat him?
Upon taking office last year, Mr. Pruitt was hailed by Republicans as Mr. Trump’s “deregulation czar,” as he moved to strip away one environmental regulation after another. Even as questions about his spending on flights and security began to mount early this year, many conservative Republicans stood by him.
But in recent days that support has waned. In perhaps one of the most ominous signs for Mr. Pruitt, this week his longtime political patron and fellow Oklahoman, Senator James Inhofe, called for further investigations into the alleged infractions of his protégé. Republicans’ willingness to take off the kid gloves when aggressively questioning one of their former favorites could signal that Mr. Pruitt has lost support in nearly every quarter in Washington.
The White House reaction
It is Mr. Trump’s opinion of the E.P.A. administrator that matters most at the end of the day, and his Twitter account may offer insight into Mr. Pruitt’s fate. Two weeks ago, Mr. Trump tweeted his support of Mr. Pruitt, writing: “While Security spending was somewhat more than his predecessor, Scott Pruitt has received death threats because of his bold actions at EPA. Record clean Air Water while saving USA Billions of Dollars. Rent was about market rate, travel expenses OK. Scott is doing a great job!”
On Wednesday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the president’s press secretary, said a White House review of Mr. Pruitt’s ethics issues was “ongoing” but offered no details. “We’re evaluating these concerns and we expect the E.P.A. administrator to answer for them and we’ll keep you posted,” she said.
Continue reading the main story