No: 17264 Friday, June 23, 2017

39

B u s i n e s s

FRIDAY, JUNE 23, 2017

SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook said it would not

disclose information about political campaign

advertising or related data such as how many

users click on ads and if advertising messages

are consistent across demographics, despite

arguments from political scientists who want

the data for research. Details such as the fre-

quency of ads, how much money was spent

on them, where they were seen, what the

messages were and how many people were

reached would remain confidential under the

company’s corporate policy, which is the

same for political advertising as for commer-

cial customers.

“Advertisers consider their ad creatives

and their ad targeting strategy to be competi-

tively sensitive and confidential,” Rob

Sherman, Facebook’s deputy chief privacy

officer, said in an interview on Wednesday,

when asked about political ads. “In many cas-

es, they’ll ask us, as a condition of running ads

on Facebook, not to disclose those details

about how they’re running campaigns on our

service,” he said. “From our perspective, it’s

confidential information of these advertisers.”

Sherman said it would not make an excep-

tion for political advertising. “We try to have

consistent policies across the board, so that

we’re imposing similar requirements on

everybody.” Academics who study political

campaigns worldwide said this kind of infor-

mation fosters accountability by analyzing

how candidates compete for votes and

whether election systems live up to expecta-

tions of fairness. Transparency can also deter

fraudulent ads, they said.

“We don’t have the capacity right now to

track it, and nobody does, as far as we can

tell,” said Bowdoin College professor Michael

Franz, a co-director of the Wesleyan Media

Project, which catalogs political ads on tradi-

tional television but has no means of doing so

on Facebook. Television has been the back-

bone of political advertising for decades, and

local US broadcasters are required to disclose

a wealth of details about the cost and sched-

ules of ads. The ads can be seen by anyone

with a television provided they are aired in

their markets.

Online advertising, though, often targets

narrow, more carefully constructed audi-

ences, so for example an ad could be directed

only to Democrats under 25 years of age.

Thousands of variations of online ads can be

directed at select groups and the targeting

can be extreme. Academics argue this is

where the process can become very opaque.

“Candidates can speak out of both sides of

their mouths,” said Daniel Kreiss, a communi-

cations professor at the University of North

Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Having some kind of

digital repository of ads that are purchased

during a particular cycle and linked to a par-

ticular source is a good, democratic thing for

the public.”

No such repository exists, and the

quandary for researchers is expected to wors-

en as more politicians use digital advertising

because of its relatively low cost and opportu-

nities for target marketing. According to U.S.

President Donald Trump’s campaign, $70 mil-

lion was spent for its ads on Facebook, more

than on any other digital platform including

Google, and Trump has credited Facebook

with helping him defeat Democrat Hillary

Clinton last November.

Advertising on Facebook also figured

prominently in recent elections in the

Netherlands and the United Kingdom,

researchers said. Britain is investigating how

candidates use data to target voters.

Facebook ads generally disappear with the

scroll of a thumb on a smartphone, and they

have no permanent links. Advocates for trans-

parency call them “dark ads.” Facebook calls

them “unpublished posts”. Researchers said

that disclosure reports from the US Federal

Election Commission are unhelpful because

they show what campaigns pay to intermedi-

aries, not to internet platforms.

The role of advertising online is as impor-

tant to study as the effect of so-called “fake

news”, which has received more attention

than ads, scholars said. “The holy grail, I think,

of political analysis for the 2016 election is to

figure out which communications from which

entities had an effect on which jurisdictions in

the United States,” said Nathan Persily, a

Stanford University professor who writes

about elections.

Facebook has such information and should

make it available for study, Persily said.

Facebook’s Sherman said the company was

open to hearing research proposals, but he

doubted much could be achieved. “Even if we

were able to be more transparent in this area,

it would only be a very small piece  of an over-

all story,” he said. —Reuters 

Facebook keeps wrap on political ads data 

TEHRAN:  Iran has begun exporting gas

through a pipeline to Baghdad under a

deal set to make Iraq the Islamic republic’s

top customer, the oil ministry said. “Iran’s

natural gas exports to Baghdad began

Wednesday evening,” Deputy Oil Minister

Amir Hossein Zamaninia said late

Wednesday in comments carried by the

ministry’s Shana website. “The exports

have started with a volume of seven mil-

lion cubic metres a day and will eventually

reach 35 million cubic metres,” he said.

The announcement came two days

after Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi

visited Iran following a fence-mending trip

to its bitter rival Saudi Arabia amid diplo-

matic turmoil in the Gulf. A new pipeline

links western Iran to Baghdad, while a sec-

ond in Iran’s southwest will pump Iranian

gas to the southern Iraqi city of Basra.

Once the Basra pipe comes online, Iraq’s

total gas imports from Iran are set to reach

up to 70 million cubic metres a day.

Iran sits on the world’s second largest

natural gas reserves and produces some

600 million cubic metres a day. But

despite almost doubling its oil exports

since international sanctions were lifted

under a 2015 nuclear deal, it consumes

most of its gas domestically - partly for

lack of export infrastructure. Turkey has so

far been its only export client, importing

some 30 million cubic metres a day under

a 1996 deal.

The Islamic republic, seeking to expand

its gas market, is developing production

facilities in the huge offshore oil and gas

field of South Pars, which it shares with

Qatar. Shiite-dominated Iran and Iraq,

which fought a devastating war in the

1980s, have become close allies since the

2003 fall of Sunni strongman Saddam

Hussein and the rise of a Shiite-led gov-

ernment in Baghdad. — AFP 

Iran begins

sending natural

gas to Iraq 

TOKYO: This file photo taken on Jan 13, 2017 shows the logo of the Japanese auto parts maker Takata displayed at a car showroom. — AFP 

Troubled airbag maker Takata

plummets on bankruptcy fears

TOKYO:  Takata suffered another crushing col-

lapse yesterday, plummeting more than 50

percent on fears the airbag maker at the center

of the auto industry’s biggest-ever safety recall

is headed for bankruptcy. The Tokyo-based car

parts giant, facing lawsuits and huge recall-

related costs over a bag defect linked to at

least 16 deaths globally, has tumbled for four

straight days. It is now worth less than a quar-

ter of its value from just a week ago when a

report by Japan’s leading Nikkei business daily

said it would seek bankruptcy protection and

sell its assets to a US company.

At yesterday’s close, the embattled stock

had plummeted 55 percent to 110 yen ($1)

from a day earlier. “The shares are going to

keep falling because the only buyers are day

traders hoping to lock in gains from fluctua-

tions in the price,” Hiroaki Hiwata, a strategist

at Toyo Securities, told AFP earlier. Another

Nikkei report Thursday said Takata, with liabili-

ties exceeding one trillion yen, would file for

bankruptcy protection as early as Monday.

Takata’s major automaker clients reportedly

support the bankruptcy filing plan.

The scandal-hit airbag firm and some of its

car customers are facing legal claims they

knew about the problem and kept silent about

it. Millions of vehicles produced by some of the

largest firms, including Toyota and General

Motors, are being recalled because of the risk

that an airbag could improperly inflate and

rupture, potentially firing deadly shrapnel at

the occupants. The ultimate cause of the mal-

functions has not yet been identified but three

factors are suspected: A chemical component,

ammonium nitrate, that responds poorly to

humidity; extreme climatic conditions, such as

heat and high humidity; and faulty design.

‘

No decision’ 

Takata issued a brief statement Thursday

that said “no decision of any kind has been

made” on a bankruptcy filing. A filing would

clear the way for American autoparts maker

Key Safety Systems, owned by China’s Ningbo

Joyson Electronic, to take over the firm’s opera-

tions, the Nikkei has said. Takata’s US-based

unit TK Holdings is also expected to file for

Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Nearly 100 million cars,

including about 70 million in the United States,

were subject to the airbag recall, the largest in

auto history, over the defective Takata airbags. 

Takata has already agreed to pay a billion-

dollar fine to settle lawsuits in the United

States over its airbags, and the company was

heavily criticized for staying largely silent as

the crisis grew. “They should have been more

upfront with the public and their customers in

the early days to tackle this problem and take it

more seriously,” said Hans Greimel, Asia editor

for the Automotive News. “In Japan you have

that mentality...of trying to solve things in-

house, reduce the embarrassment, get through

it quietly and correct it for the future but don’t

make a scene.—AFP

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