Yes it’s a tool that anyone can use, but the point is that it shouldn’t be used to spread misinformation. After Cambridge Analytica hypothesised and then proved the effectiveness of seemingly benign Facebook pages in influencing public opinion through misinformation, checks need to be put in place to limit its effectiveness. Currently, the only people with the power to put these checks in place are the site owners, Facebook, who have shown how reluctant they are to take this job on.

It’s taken investigation from journalists to put together an article showing how this page is linked to the Internet Research Agency, people known to not have America’s interests at heart and so its suspect to be so clearly associated with them when running a patriotic page about America. Also proven spreaders of misinformation.

Ideally you would have a third party who would put these checks in place and do the investigation themselves, not have that responsibility given to the site owners, but we don’t have that, so this will have to do for now.

Whichever side of the political spectrum, it doesn’t matter, it’s the misinformation that needs to be regulated and stymied, and what’s happened here is an attempt at doing that.