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A24 TECHNOLOGY
Monday 4 noveMber 2019
Twitter pulls back on political ads, but pitfalls await

By RACHEL LERMAN and in proprietary technology is
BARBARA ORTUTAY steadily reducing the bur-
AP Technology Writers den on people to report to
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — us," Twitter said.
Twitter announced an end The report, covering the
Wednesday to political first six months of the year,
campaign and issue ads also said accounts either
on its service, calling it an locked or suspended for
important step in reducing violating Twitter's rules more
the flow of election-related than doubled from the pre-
misinformation. vious six months.
But some of its users might The political advertising is-
face an unintended conse- sue rose to the forefront
quence or two. earlier this fall when Twitter,
Among those potentially along with Facebook and
affected could be public- Google, refused to remove
interest nonprofits eager to a misleading video ad from
reach an audience larger President Donald Trump's
than their official followers, campaign that targeted
challengers to incumbent Democratic presidential
officeholders, and — ob- candidate Joe Biden.In re-
viously — political consul- sponse, Democratic Sen.
tants who make a living Elizabeth Warren, another
placing ad buys for their In this Sept. 5, 2018, file photo Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey testifies before the House Energy and presidential hopeful, ran
candidates. Commerce Committee in Washington. her own ad on Facebook
Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Associated Press taking aim at Zuckerberg.
said in a series of tweets trast between Twitter and we believe or we haven't ad spending for the 2018 The ad falsely claimed that
that paid political messag- its much larger rival Face- thought hard about these midterm election was less Zuckerberg endorsed Presi-
es in the targeted environ- book, which has come un- issues." than $3 million. It reported dent Donald Trump for re-
ment that social media en- der fire in recent months for Google did not have an $824 million in third-quarter election, acknowledging
ables can be fraught. its policy of not fact-check- immediate comment on revenue. the deliberate falsehood as
"While internet advertising ing political ads. Twitter's policy change. Candidates spend signifi- necessary to make a point.
is incredibly powerful and Facebook CEO Mark Zuck- Trump's campaign manag- cantly more purchasing Dorsey said the company
very effective for commer- erberg shot back quickly, er called Twitter's change ads on Facebook than on is recognizing that advertis-
cial advertisers, that power using an earnings confer- a "very dumb decision" in a Twitter, company records ing on social media offers
brings significant risks to ence call Wednesday af- statement Wednesday. show. an unfair level of targeting
politics, where it can be ternoon to offer an impas- "This is yet another attempt In a semi-annual report on compared to other medi-
used to influence votes to sioned defense of what he to silence conservatives, enforcing its guidelines, ums. It is not about free ex-
affect the lives of millions," called his company's deep since Twitter knows Presi- Twitter said Thursday that pression, he asserted.
he wrote. belief "that political speech dent Trump has the most so- more than 50% of the tweets "This is about paying for
Security and privacy re- is important." phisticated online program it removes for abuse are reach. And paying to in-
searchers and some Dem- "This is complex stuff. Any- ever," campaign manager now "proactively" flagged crease the reach of politi-
ocratic politicians hailed one who says the answer Brad Parscale said. using technology such as cal speech has significant
Twitter's decision as an is simple hasn't thought Political advertising makes artificial intelligence rather ramifications that today's
important way to prevent about the nuances and up a small sliver of Twit- than needing someone to democratic infrastructure
campaigns from feeding downstream challenges," ter's overall revenue. The report problems. That com- may not be prepared to
streams of misinformation Zuckerberg said. "I don't company does not break pares with 20% a year ago, handle," he tweeted. "It's
to targeted voters. The think anyone can say that out specific figures each it said. worth stepping back in or-
move drew a sharp con- we are not doing what quarter, but said political "Our continued investment der to address."q

Security firm says Chinese hackers intercepted text messages

By TAMI ABDOLLAH were "high-value" and all were practices, Steven Stone, said that phone numbers they interacted
Associated Press chosen by their phone numbers none of the known targets was a with, call durations and times.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese and unique cellphone identifiers U.S. government official. A government representative at
hackers with a history of state- known as IMSI numbers. The discovered malware, which China's embassy in Washington,
sponsored espionage have in- The cybersecurity firm would not FireEye dubbed MESSAGETAP, D.C., did not immediately re-
tercepted the text messages of identify or otherwise characterize was able to collect data on its spond to an emailed request for
thousands of foreigners in a tar- the victims or the impacted tele- targets without their knowledge comment. FireEye did not identify
geted campaign that planted coms provider or give its location. but could not read messages sent the maker of the equipment that
eavesdropping software on a It said only that the telecom is in a with end-to-end encrypted appli- was hacked or specify how the
telecommunications provider's country that's typically a strategic cations such as WhatsApp and hackers penetrated the telecom
servers, a cybersecurity firm said. competitor to China. iMessage. provider networks.
FireEye said in a report issued on The spyware was programmed "If you're one of these targets you It said APT41 began using MES-
Thursday that the hackers be- to capture messages containing have no idea your message traf- SAGETAP during the summer,
long to the group designated references to political leaders, fic is being taken from your de- which is around when pro-de-
Advanced Persistent Threat 41 , military and intelligence organi- vice because your device hasn't mocracy protests began in Hong
or APT41, which it says has been zations and political movements been infected," Stone said. Kong. The firm said since its dis-
involved in spying and cyber- at odds with the Chinese govern- FireEye said the hackers also stole covery, it has found "multiple"
crime for most of the past de- ment, FireEye said. detailed calling records on spe- telecoms targeted by the mal-
cade. It said some of the targets FireEye's director of advanced cific individuals, obtaining the ware. q