Facebook again declines to limit political ad targeting

Facebook has decided t to limit how political s can be targeted to specific groups of people, as its main digital- rival Google did in vember to fight misinformation. Neir will it ban political s outright, as Twitter did last October. And it still won’t fact check m, as it’s faced pressure to do.

Inste, it is anuncing much more limited “transparency features” that aim to give users slightly more control over how many political s y see and to make its online library of political s easier to use.

se steps appear unlikely to assu critics — including some of company’s rank and file employees — who say Facebook has too much power and t eugh limits when it comes to its effects on elections and democracy itself.

Since last fall, Facebook has insisted that it won’t fact-check political s, a move that critics say gives politicians license to lie in s that can’t be easily monitored by outsiders. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has repeatedly argued that “political speech is important” and that Facebook doesn’t want to interfere with it.

Google, digital s leer, is limiting political- targeting to bro categories such as sex, and postal code.

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Facebook said in a blog post Thursday that it considered limiting targeting of political s. But social network said it learned about ir importance for “reaching key audiences” after conducting outreach with political campaigns from both U.S. parties, political groups and nprofits.

company said it was guided by principle that “people should be able to hear from those who wish to le m, warts and all, and that what y say should be scrutinized and debated in public.”

Facebook does plan to let users choose to see “fewer” political and social-issue s, although it won’t let people exclude m entirely. It will also let people search library for exact phrases and to limit ir search results using filters such as -audience size, dates and regions reached.

transparency changes will go into effect over next three months in U.S. and or countries where Facebook puts “paid for by” disclaimers on political s. political- controls won’t roll out in U.S. until early summer; company will “eventually” expand m to or regions.

(Picture Credit: AP)