Inside Facebook's ‘Arms Race' to Protect Users Ahead of Midterm Elections

In 2016's presidential election, more than 126 million Americans saw incendiary Facebook posts from accounts, pages and ads linked to Russia

Facebook plans to build a physical "war room" to coordinate response in real time to foreign interference in November's midterm elections, the company's head of civic engagement told NBC News.

Samidh Chakrabarti is leading Facebook's efforts to secure the platform for elections around the world, and he told NBC News in an exclusive interview that the company is "much more effective than we used to be" and the entire company is "laser focused on getting it right."

In 2016's presidential election, more than 126 million Americans saw incendiary Facebook posts from accounts, pages and ads linked to Russia. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has so far declined to say how much foreign interference remains.

Chakrabarti said Facebook's efforts around political ad transparency are making the platform more trustworthy, but he acknowledged that bad actors are getting more sophisticated: "It is an arms race. And we're always working to try to stay one step ahead."

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