NYU’s Ad Observatory Project
In September 2020, researchers at NYU launched the Ad Observatory Project. The aim was to gain more insight into political ads, the spread of misinformation and, most importantly, increased social media ad transparency ahead of the 2020 elections. The researchers wanted questions answered, such as: Who relies on Facebook political ads? Which candidates, super PACS, and dark money groups are spending most on Facebook advertising? What topics do they emphasize and what objectives do they seek to achieve? The main source for NYU Ad Observatory is Facebook’s API and ad library reports. NYU Ad Observatory enhances the information collected with additional coding, analysis, and features, including the ability to search by topic (like immigration), ad adjective (like donate), or total ad spend over time. The tool is used by journalists and researchers to easily analyze political ads. To support more accurate data collection, the team also developed a second crowd-sourcing tool called NYU Ad Observer. Volunteers can add this simple Facebook plug-in to their web browser. The tool simply copies ads it sees on Facebook and collects them in a public database, while protecting privacy. Eventually, more than 15, 000 volunteers installed Ad Observer.
Multiple Shutdown Attempts
Two weeks before the 2020 presidential election, Facebook sent the two main researchers, Laura Edelson and Damon McCoy, a cease-and-desist letter. Facebook commanded the academics to stop using the research tool they developed. Furthermore, the social media giant ordered them to take the results from their prior research down. The letter granted the researchers 45 days to comply with Facebook’s request. The move prompted public outcry in support of the project by other researchers, journalists, and civil society organizations. Ever since then, the researchers and Facebook have been trying to come to an agreement. Unfortunately, the negotiations ended in a stalemate. Late on Tuesday evening, Facebook abruptly suspended the personal Facebook account of Laura Edelson, Damon McCoy and several people associated with Cybersecurity for Democracy, their team at NYU.
On Opposite Sides of the Fence
Both parties couldn’t be more diametrically opposite. In a statement released by Facebook, product management director, Mike Clark, said that NYU’s Ad Observatory project had used unauthorized means to access and collect data from Facebook, in violation of their Terms of Service. “We took these actions to stop unauthorized scraping and protect people’s privacy in line with our privacy program under the FTC Order.” In a press statement issued by Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, Seth Barlin, partner at Ballard Spahr, said the claim is truly remarkable. “As a pretext for preventing NYU’s researchers from exposing flaws on Facebook’s platform, the company is making the truly remarkable claim that political advertising is private. But the whole point of advertising is that it is intended to be public.” For NYU’s research, Facebook users voluntarily donate their advertising information while remaining completely anonymous. The researchers do not collect any private user information. The user information Facebook is referring to, doesn’t’ involve private users’ accounts. On the contrary, it applies to public pages that run political ads. Therefore, Facebook’s justification for shutting down this research simply doesn’t hold up.
Transparency is Vital
“By suspending our accounts, Facebook has tried to shut down all this work”, declared Laura Edelson. “The work our team does to make data about disinformation on Facebook transparent is vital to a healthy internet and a healthy democracy. Facebook is silencing us because our work often calls attention to problems on its platform. If this episode demonstrates anything it’s that Facebook should not have veto power over who is allowed to study them.”
