Martech: Martech is Marketing Logo
  • Topics
    Digital Transformation
    Marketing Operations
    Data
    Customer & Digital Experience
    Performance Marketing
    Marketing Management
    Special Reports
    All Topics
  • Conference
  • Webinars
  • Intelligence Reports
  • White Papers
  • What is MarTech

Processing...Please wait.

MarTech » Performance Marketing » Where some see data suppression, Facebook says it was only following privacy policy

Where some see data suppression, Facebook says it was only following privacy policy

CrowdTangle tool enabled social media analyst to access cached pages from inactive or deleted accounts tied to Russian election meddling.

Greg Sterling on October 12, 2017 at 7:19 pm | Reading time: 3 minutes

An article appearing in The Washington Post about Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election says Facebook “scrubbed” thousands of organic posts associated with accounts used by Russian operatives. The implication is that Facebook is suppressing information to avoid further embarrassment or negative PR.

Facebook told Marketing Land that the Post article doesn’t reflect what actually happened. The company explained it “is cooperating fully with federal investigations and providing info to the relevant authorities.”

I spoke at some length with a Facebook spokesperson on the record and on background. CrowdTangle was the tool used to unearth the disputed posts. The browser plug-in was acquired by Facebook in roughly November 2016.

I was also told by Facebook that the accounts in question were all “inactive,” which means they were either deleted or deactivated by the Page administrator or in some way violated Facebook’s terms of service and were deactivated by the company.

Facebook’s privacy policy requires that inactive or deleted accounts be removed from public access or view. According to the company, the inactive accounts and their related posts should not have been accessible at all — anywhere — regardless of their content. However, CrowdTangle was able to discover and retrieve cached pages from these inactive accounts.

The problem was characterized by Facebook as a “bug.” It was more like an inconsistency between Facebook’s privacy policy and what CrowdTangle could access. That inconsistency was not uncovered, Facebook says, until the inactive account posts were discovered by social media analyst Jonathan Albright.

Admittedly, Facebook’s explanation has a dubious quality about it. But the company says there’s no attempt here to suppress or conceal information. Rather it was seeking to comply with its own privacy policies.

Here’s the official statement provided by Facebook’s spokesperson:

We identified and fixed a bug in CrowdTangle that allowed users to see cached information from all inactive Facebook Pages. Across all our platforms we have privacy commitments to make all inactive content, that is no longer available, inaccessible. With this fix, the information from all Inactive Pages will now not be available.

Facebook also indicated to me one reason the CrowdTangle “bug” had not previously been discovered is that the tool is rarely used to look for historical information. Most marketers and journalists use it for real-time information and content discovery.

In terms of any concerns this might trigger for marketers, there should be none. The posts in question were from inactive accounts, and Facebook says there are no data removals or purges for active accounts.


Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily MarTech. Staff authors are listed here.


New on MarTech

    Only 38% of marketers very confident in their customer data and analytics systems
    Does your email copy persuade or sell?
    The latest jobs in martech
    74% of B2B marketers expect budgets to increase next year
    How Cherry Bombe uses email to make customers smile

About The Author

Greg Sterling
Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.

Related Topics

Performance Marketing

Get the daily newsletter digital marketers rely on.

Processing...Please wait.

See terms.

ATTEND OUR EVENTS The MarTech Conference logo.

September 28-29, 2022: Fall

Start Training Now: Master Classes

Start Discovering Now: Spring



The SMX Conference logo.

Start Training Now:: SMX Advanced

November 14-15, 2022: SMX Next

March 8-9, 2022: Master Classes

Webinars

SEO Recon: The What, Why, and How for Building Amazing Links

Unlock the Cutting-Edge Potential of QR Codes

Why Finding the Right Platform is the Key to Winning in Email Marketing

See More Webinars
Intelligence Reports

Enterprise Marketing Performance Management Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Customer Journey Orchestration Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

Enterprise Account-Based Marketing Platforms: A Marketer’s Guide

See More Intelligence Reports
Featured White Paper

The Definitive Buyer’s Guide to Collaborative Work Management for Marketers

See More Whitepapers
Search Our Site

Receive daily marketing news & analysis.

Processing...Please wait.

Topics

  • Transformation
  • Operations
  • Data
  • Experience
  • Performance
  • Management
  • All Topics
  • Home

Our Events

  • MarTech
  • Search Marketing Expo - SMX

About

  • What is MarTech
  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Marketing Opportunities
  • Staff

Follow Us

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Newsletters
  • RSS

© 2022 Third Door Media, Inc. All rights reserved.