Ex-Facebook employee on the company’s dangerous loophole: ’Autocrats don’t bother to hide’

As a data scientist at Facebook, Sophie Zhang spent more than two years investigating fake ’engagement’, or inauthentic likes, comments, shares and reactions. In the process, she uncovered political manipulation networks across 25 countries, several of which Facebook ultimately took down. Much of this abuse centered on a loophole in Facebook’s rules: while the company removes fake accounts, it does not prevent users from creating inauthentic Pages. Here, Zhang – who was fired last year – explains how governments took advantage of this lack of enforcement