U.S.-Funded Broadcaster Directed Ads to Americans

A broadcasting organization backed by the federal government has used Facebook to target ads at U.S. citizens, in potential violation of long-standing laws meant to protect Americans from domestic propaganda.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which typically broadcasts to audiences in Europe, Asia and the Middle East, bought several ads on Facebook in recent days that were targeted at users in the United States. As with other state-funded media organizations, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is mostly restricted by law from promoting its content in the U.S. except on request.

The ads that ran on the organization’s Facebook page, which included several human-interest stories about Russia and a graphic questioning NATO’s popularity, were visible because of a recent policy change by Facebook. In May, the social network began displaying information about ads on its platform and archiving political ads in a publicly searchable database.

After being contacted by The New York Times, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty pulled down the ads targeted at Americans.

Nasserie Carew, a spokeswoman for the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the agency that oversees state-funded media organizations, said in a statement that Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty had “ceased the practice” of targeting ads at people in the United States after her group’s management had discussions with the broadcaster.

“None of the BBG networks should be distributing or promoting our content domestically in order to develop or grow domestic audiences,” Carew said. Some citizens in repressive countries use tools that route their internet traffic through U.S. servers, she said, which can make them appear to be Americans. She added that the BBG recently appointed a chief technology officer “due to the complexity of working on different social media platforms.”

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which has its headquarters in Prague, was formed during the Cold War as a counterforce to Soviet propaganda programs. The organization has continued to promote American interests abroad, though it says a firewall prevents U.S. government officials from determining its coverage. It operates in 20 countries, with more than 600 employees and a budget of nearly $120 million last year, according to its website.

In recent years, critics have accused Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Voice of America of being dysfunctional and slow to adapt to a changing media environment. Last month, the organization was fined by a Moscow court for failing to comply with Russian foreign agent laws.

As with all affiliates of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is governed by the Smith-Mundt Act, a 1948 law that banned government-funded media outlets from disseminating their content inside the United States. The law was amended in 2014 to allow state-funded media organizations to distribute their content “upon request” to American viewers.

In June, the White House announced plans to nominate Michael Pack, a conservative activist with ties to Stephen K. Bannon, the former presidential adviser, to lead the BBG. The organization has been led since 2015 by John F. Lansing, a former cable news executive.

One post promoted by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty’s Facebook page showed a graphic with approval numbers for NATO around the world. It included the caption: “The majority of people surveyed in Greece and Turkey have unfavorable views of NATO.” The ad ran on July 13, just after President Donald Trump criticized numerous NATO members at a summit meeting in Brussels.

Another ad showed a video of an emerging Russian sport called “Swamp Football,” a soccerlike game played in knee-high mud. The caption read, “The World Cup has just finished, but these Russians are reinventing football.” The video was a clip from Current Time TV, a Russian-language show that airs primarily in Europe. Current Time TV began airing in 2016 as an alternative to Kremlin-controlled outlets that critics say have promoted misinformation and propaganda abroad.

A third ad, which ran on the broadcaster’s Facebook page in early July, showed Russian soccer fans celebrating the country’s World Cup victory over Spain.

None of these posts was labeled a political ad by Facebook’s algorithm. Because they were not categorized as political ads, the amount spent on them was not disclosed, and they do not appear in Facebook’s ad archive.

Facebook has faced mounting pressure to stamp out propaganda and misinformation on its platform. But the steps it has taken to increase transparency around ads have been hampered by problems, such as an algorithm that has at times wrongly flagged ads by small businesses as being political in nature. Unlike YouTube, which began labeling videos published by state-funded media outlets earlier this year, Facebook’s ad transparency policy does not differentiate state-funded media from independent media.

“State-funded media is inherently political — it should all be documented in Facebook’s political ad database,” said Jennifer M. Grygiel, an assistant professor of communications at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, who has been investigating the broadcaster’s domestic ads. “I hope that Congress will review this, and I hope Facebook will change their policies and product.” Rob Leathern, Facebook’s director of product management for ads, said that the company was looking at offering more details about pages that run ads, including country information.

Two ads that ran on the broadcaster’s page were labeled political ads. One, a post about an anti-tank missile system given to Ukraine by the United States, was targeted mainly at users in Britain and the former Soviet republic of Georgia. The other, a sponsored story about a Russian lawmaker who warned World Cup attendees against having sex with tourists during the tournament, was targeted at users in Europe.

Both ads were taken down by Facebook because they did not come from an account that had gone through an authorization process to post political ads.

Weston R. Sager, a lawyer with firm Gallagher, Callahan & Gartrell who has written about anti-propaganda laws, said that it was disturbing to see government-funded news agencies targeting Facebook ads at Americans, no matter their content.

“I’m concerned that we’re seeing the beginning of government efforts to try to influence public opinion in the United States through the BBG and its affiliate entities,” Sager said. “It’s one thing to read a tweet by Donald Trump. It’s another to receive a very polished news story from an organization that holds itself out as objective and fact-based.”