Anomaly in Facebook poll spend data; 'unknown' locations top chart

Experts say more transparency is required from social media and other digital giants

The world’s biggest social media platform had an aberration in its spending data on the 2019 general elections. 

A break-up of the data spends by location showed that the biggest spends originated from a location classified as “unknown”. This was followed by other places such as Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, and Delhi. 

Further clarification was sought by Business Standard on the data, through an e-mail sent to Facebook on Wednesday. The data was subsequently removed, and an emailed statement said there had been a problem in its systems. 

“We recently learned of a bug in India’s Ad