Facebook's Political Nightmare Is Getting Worse Ahead Of The 2018 Midterms

If the 2016 election was proof-of-concept for platform-enabled election meddling, the 2018 midterms, just months away, are shaping up to be more of a large-scale clinical trial — and an absolute nightmare for Facebook.

For Facebook, which is still reeling from manipulation of its platform by fake news purveyors and Kremlin-linked trolls seeking to disrupt US politics, November's midterms are a chance to show ornery regulators and an increasingly distrustful public that it can effectively shut down malicious activity within its own platform. But they're a daunting challenge as well, one complicated by fast-evolving tools of misinformation, bad actors incentivized by Russian success, and a ferociously politicized environment — all contributing to a broad and ongoing pollution of the public discourse.

Despite Facebook's repeated reassurances, some on Capitol Hill fear the company — and country — may be sucker punched again come November. And a dysfunctional federal government waffling on plans to thwart future attacks on elections isn’t helping matters.