The playbook: How Trump and Russia gamed Facebook to win the election

‘Facebook played a vital role in the outcome of the 2016 election—ask any digital director on one of the presidential campaigns, or maybe some Russian propagandists.
News that Facebook took at least $100,000 from Russian troll farms to promote socially and politically divisive content reignited discussion around just how much of an impact Facebook had in getting Donald Trump elected.
It also begged a serious question: Had Facebook helped Russia manipulate the outcome?
“They can stop me from selling a gun to my neighbor on Facebook, but they can’t stop Russians from buying ads that are fake news?” said Wesley Donehue, digital director for Marco Rubio’s campaign. “That’s just negligence.”
In the past year, Facebook’s message on its role in the election has changed dramatically. CEO and cofounder Mark Zuckerberg went from saying fake news and Facebook affecting the election was a “crazy idea” to instituting a major crackdown on shady publishers and creating a task force within the company dedicated to investigating the spread of misinformation.’
Read more: The playbook: How Trump and Russia gamed Facebook to win the election