Anonymous Facebook ad campaign to 'chuck Chequers' ran for months despite fake news ban

An anonymous Facebook advertising campaign that sought to “chuck Chequers” ran for 10 months and reached millions of people despite the company’s war on fake news.

Researchers working for the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) committee say the campaign's backers spent an estimated £257,000 on 70 ads which reached up to 11 million people.

The campaign had “potentially a bigger budget than UKIP”, according to a report submitted to DCMS which also claimed a website linked to the adverts, “Mainstream Network”, had no identifiable UK organisation, address, group or individuals connected with it.

“With the level of spending estimated, it is possible that this website is in breach of both GDPR and also Electoral Commission rules on non-party campaigners,” researchers said in evidence presented to an inquiry on fake news by the DCMS Committee. “Furthermore, the site is likely collecting and harvesting user data in violation of GDPR.

MPs were told that pages were set up to target users in “every key constituency in the UK” with bespoke messages encouraging users to lobby in favour of Brexit. The 20 most popular messages were liked or shared over 140,000 times on social media.

This data was collected by private communications company 89up, which was hired by DCMS committee in May to help it understand the technology used to distribute fake news. 

The report claims the campaign was well-funded and led by a "sophisticated organisation".

Damian Collins, DCMS committee chair, said: "We have absolutely no idea who is behind it. The only people who know who is paying for these adverts is Facebook."

Researchers alerted MPs after analysing data provided by Facebook designed to identify who pays for political ads.

Rob Leathern, director of project management at Facebook, said that all advertisers including Mainstream Network have to follow the requirements implemented earlier this month to place their ads, or they will not be able to run them. 

Facebook made the changes after the Electoral Commission called for greater transparency on political advertising.

Facebook was at the heart of claims surrounding fake political advertising and misinformation during the 2016 US elections when Russia-linked groups used adverts and articles  spread via Facebook to sow discord.

The Electoral Reform Society said that Facebook’s move is the first step in regulating a “wild west” environment on the Internet.

Jess Garland, Electoral Reform Society director of research and policy, said: “The integrity of our elections cannot be left to the whim of individual companies. While Google and Twitter have made steps towards ad transparency in the US, for UK voters the internet remains a free-for-all where voters have no idea who is pushing an agenda or to whom. The UK's analogue-age election rules are a meddlers’ charter that leave our elections vulnerable.”