Facebook plans to let
people see if they had "liked" pages created by "foreign
actors" to spread propaganda during the US presidential election.
The social network has
previously said as many as 126 million Americans may have seen content uploaded
by Russia-based agents over the past two years.
It is building a tool
to let people see whether they had followed now-deleted pages made by the
Russia-based Internet Research Agency.
The tool will be
launched in December.
The Internet Research
Agency was behind hundreds of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter accounts and
posted thousands of politically-charged messages.
Many of the pages such
as Heart Of Texas, Being Patriotic and Secured Borders were designed to look
like they were created by US citizens.
November 2016,
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said it was a "pretty crazy idea" to
suggest misinformation spread on the social network influenced the US
presidential election.
Since then, the
company has identified thousands of posts and paid advertisements placed by
Russia-based operatives.
It has been criticised
for allowing propaganda and fake news to spread on its platform and taking too
long to address the problem.
Russia has repeatedly
denied allegations that it attempted to influence the last US presidential
election, in which Donald Trump beat Hillary Clinton.
"It is important that people understand how foreign actors
tried to sow division and mistrust using Facebook before and after the 2016 US
election," Facebook said in a blog
post.
"That's why, as
we have discovered information, we have continually come forward to share it
publicly and have provided it to congressional investigators.
"And it's also
why we're building the tool we are announcing today."
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