Shadowy Facebook Ads That Pushed Trump Are Back for Roy Moore

Three months after Mark Zuckerberg pledged to stop external forces from disproportionately affecting U.S. elections, targeted ads are bombarding voters in a pivotal Senate race.

BEN COLLINS
ANDREW DESIDERIO
12.11.17 5:00 AM ET

BIRMINGHAM, Alabama—Yvonne Trosclair doesn’t know who’s behind America First Action—which keeps running pro-Roy Moore ads here on television and on Facebook ahead of the U.S. Senate election on Tuesday—but she knows they’re not from Alabama.

“The ad campaign is ridiculous by itself, but there’s nothing that makes my skin crawl more than hearing ‘Alabamans’ instead of ‘Alabamians,’” Trosclair told The Daily Beast. “It’s the first thing they say.”

Trosclair took to America First Action’s nascent Facebook page to vent her frustrations, just as several others have done over the past week after they were bombarded with targeted content from the pro-Donald Trump PAC’s $1 million ad buy. At press time, the group had a 1.7-star rating on Facebook out of 5.

What Trosclair didn’t find was much identifying information from America First Action, including where the PAC is based. That sort of pivotal disclosure is one of the several promises Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg made in his highly publicized address three months ago aimed at fixing veiled political advertising on the platform, which was said to have help Trump win.

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https://www.thedailybeast.com/shadowy-unlabeled-ads-target-alabamians-on-an-unchanged-facebook