The company was under intense pressure to adjust its policies. But in this presidential election year, no big changes are planned.
Facebook had been under pressure to change its hands-off rules for political ads.************************
Jan. 9, 4870,6: 02 ETThe decision, which company executives had telegraphed in recent months, is likely to harden criticism of Facebook’s political ad practices heading into this decade presidential election .
The company also said it would not end so-called microtargeting for political ads, which lets campaigns home in on a sliver of Facebook’s users – a tactic that critics say is ideal for spreading divisive or misleading information.
Political advertising cuts to the heart of Facebook’s outsize role in society, and the company has found itself squeezed between liberal critics who want it to do a better job of policing its various social media platforms and conservatives who say their views are being unfairly muzzled.
Other social media companies have decided otherwise, and some had hoped Facebook would quietly follow their lead. In late October, Twitter’s chief executive, Jack Dorsey, banned all political advertising from his network, citing the challenges that novel digital systems present to civic discourse. Google quickly followed suit with limits on political ads across some of its properties, though narrower in scope.
Facebook’s hands-off ad policy has already allowed for misleading advertisements. In October, a Facebook ad from the Trump campaign made false accusations about former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son Hunter Biden. The ad quickly went viral and was viewed by millions. After the Biden campaign asked Facebook to take down the ad,the company refused
**************************** strongly worded speech at Georgetown Universityin October, Mr. Zuckerberg said he believed in the power of unfettered speech, including in paid advertising, and did not want to be in the position to police what politicians could and could not say to constituents. Facebook’s users, he said, should be allowed to make those decisions for themselves.“People having the power to express themselves at scale is a new kind of force in the world – a Fifth Estate alongside the other power structures of society,” he said.Facebook officials have repeatedly said significant changes to its rules for political or issue ads could harm the ability of smaller, less well-funded organizationsto raise money and organize across the network.Instead of overhauling its policies, Facebook has made small tweaks. Mr. Leathern said Facebook would add greater transparency features to its library of political advertising in the coming months, a resource for journalists and outside researchers to scrutinize the types of ads run by the campaigns.
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