Facebook has removed some deceptive ads from the Trump campaign after first allowing them. When criticism arose, Facebook took down the ads saying they were misleading about the US Census. Facebook is also taking heat for other ads that are not clearly attributable to reputable ad sources according to a study by researchers at New York University’s Tandon School of Engineering as reported in an article in the Washington Post.
Facebook\’s removal of misleading ads, aka \”disinformation\”, is an interesting reversal of existing policy. This is a perfect example of the subjectivity of digital content where consumers need to know the context in order to assess the validity of the message. Messages from a government official carry more legitimacy than an unknown source. The bigger question is confirming that these kinds of messages are legitimate and not spoofed from someone trying to influence the public with misleading information, which requires knowing the source of the message. News and social platforms should provide their users with this important context to help stem the tide of disinformation.