The report highlighted the power that social media holds particularly when combined with the misuse of personal data which allowed a “radical shift in the balance of power between social media platforms and the people”. The findings suggested that false news stories from foreign powers were risking the UK’s democracy by deliberately spreading false news to help actively sow social discontent. The inquiry into fake news was carried out by the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee and focused primarily around Facebook’s actions before and after the Cambridge Analytica scandal which occurred last year. The report concluded by saying that “Democracy is at risk from malicious and relentless targeting of citizens with disinformation and personalised ‘dark adverts’ from unidentifiable sources, delivered through the major social media platforms that we use every day” Facebook did come back to say it welcomed the report and said it would be open to the process of “meaningful regulation” in the future. Make sure you’re as safe as possible on Facebook by avoiding these scams and if you want to stop Facebook apps from using your data we can show you how to do that too.
