How the loophole in Facebook’s political campaigning transparency tools works

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Facebook requires a low level of disclosure from the campaign pages, such as saying which countries the administrators are located in

Free and Fair Zimbabwe election

Reporting Yemen

Unblock the Embankment

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But dozens of Facebook pages can be easily added to a single higher level group called a 'business manager', which is not subject to Facebook's transparency rules

Shared Facebook business manager account

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This allows staff at Sir Lynton Crosby's company to place adverts and oversee many Facebook pages on behalf of different clients. Normal users would have no idea that the public pages are connected and there is no risk of Crosby's employees having to make their involvement public - or disclose which client is funding them

1

Facebook requires a low level of disclosure from the campaign pages, such as saying which countries the administrators are located in

Free and Fair Zimbabwe election

Reporting Yemen

Unblock the Embankment

2

But dozens of Facebook pages can be easily added to a single higher level group called a 'business manager', which is not subject to Facebook's transparency rules

Shared Facebook business manager account

3

This allows staff at Sir Lynton Crosby's company to place adverts and oversee many Facebook pages on behalf of different clients. Normal users would have no idea that the public pages are connected and there is no risk of Crosby's employees having to make their involvement public - or disclose which client is funding them