Reports indicate that Facebook removed thousands of posts which were shared during the 2016 elections. These posts were linked to Russian accounts after a Columbia University social-media researcher named Jon Albright [2] used the data to further examine what kind of reach Russia had on social media. Facebook has blamed the deleted data on a glitch within their analytics software. [1]
Facebook then blocked Jon Albright from viewing certain pages.
Albright told the Post that Facebook said the information wasn’t meant to be public, and that the company considered it a “bug” that he was able to find and download the data through the Facebook-owned social media analysis tool CrowdTangle. [3]
References:
- ir.net, October 13, 2017, Chase Sanders – Twitter & Facebook Deleted Crucial Russian Posts Before Investigators Could See Them
- Research Director at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University
- cnet.com, October 12, 2017, Laura Hautala – Facebook blocks researcher from viewing Russia-affiliated posts
The researcher had looked at the information to study the reach of ads associated with an alleged Kremlin-backed campaign.