But sanctioned entities remained part of Facebook’s revenue redistribution program, meaning they could potentially share in the platform’s ad revenue, says nonprofit WHAT TO FIX, which focuses on the accountability of internet platforms.
The campaign group said it could not ascertain whether funds were exchanged between Meta and the sanctioned entities as part of the program, but said that its findings “raise important questions regarding Meta’s compliance with EU sanctions.”
A Meta spokesperson responded: “Being listed on our Partner-Publisher list is not itself evidence that an account has received payouts, and any party on that list is still subject to our sanctions controls … When we identify accounts that appear to be run by or on behalf of sanctioned parties, we enforce against them.”
WHAT TO FIX looked at Facebook’s lists of active partner publishers, which include publishers that have signed up for Meta’s monetization programs. Advertisers can choose from these lists where to feature their ads, and the platform may share some of its revenue with these pages.
As of June 20, the lists included as many as 4.65 million accounts.
Facebook removed RT and Sputnik from the list in 2022, but Sputnik pages in EU languages reemerged for one year as of October 2022, the researchers said. A new RT Arabic page also emerged in July 2023 and was on the list until earlier in June but has been removed, according to the researchers.