‘Politically-sophisticated’ attempt to influence Delhi elections on Facebook before it was taken down: Ex employee

A “politically-sophisticated” attempt to influence the Delhi elections in February played out on Facebook before it was taken down silently, a recently fired employee of the social media company has said in a memo. Former Facebook data scientist Sophie Zhang has also cited examples in the memo of how the company has failed to act on time or with transparency in tackling attempts to undermine democratic processes around the world.

American digital media outlet BuzzFeed News accessed the memo and reported about it late on Monday. The memo cites instances of alleged influence operations by political parties in Azerbaijan and Honduras, and similar but unattributed campaigns in Ukraine, Spain, Brazil, Bolivia, and Ecuador, in addition to India.