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In an article published on Wednesday, DR cited experts
expressing concerns that the tag - that Facebook called an
"interest category" - could be used by intelligence services in
authoritarian regimes to identify people considered subversive.
Facebook, the world's largest social network with more than 2
billion users, creates categories such as "sports" or "music"
based on people's online interests, allowing companies to better
target their advertising.
A spokesman for the company said the tag was removed last week.
"'Treason' was included as a category given its historical
significance. Given it's an illegal activity, we've removed it
as an interest category," a Facebook spokesman said in an email
to Reuters.
Exports told DR the tag could have been used by Russian
authorities to locate about 65,000 Facebook users whose online
behavior had marked them as interested in "treason".
The Facebook spokesman said: "When we identify misuse of our ad
products, we take action. Depending on the violation, we may
remove the ad, suspend the ad account or even report the
advertiser to law enforcement."
Separately on Wednesday, Britain's information regulator said it
would fine Facebook 500,000 pounds ($663,000) for breaches of
data protection law after millions of users' data was improperly
accessed by consultancy Cambridge Analytica.
(Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; additional reporting by
Stine Jacobsen and Douglas Busvine; Editing by Robin Pomeroy)
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