Facebook failed to anticipate foreign interference aimed at disrupting 2016 U.S. presidential election

Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said that the social-media company failed to anticipate foreign interference aimed at disrupting the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Report informs referring to The Wall Street Journal.

Speaking onstage during a question-and-answer session at the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, Ms. Sandberg said the company was prepared to thwart hackers in advance of the 2016 election but wasn’t ready to combat the spread of misinformation from Russia and elsewhere.

“We really missed it,” Ms. Sandberg said. “Everyone missed it.”

Since then, she said, Facebook has created safeguards to curb misinformation. The company ramped up its engagement with governments around the world to prevent election interference and launched a verification program with third-party fact-checkers to reduce the spread of hoaxes.