UK lawmaker challenges Facebook on political ads

An influential British lawmaker has challenged Facebook’s new effort to safeguard elections, warning the company that the changes will place a heavy constraint on their ability to combat misinformation.

Damian Collins, the chair of Parliament media committee, wrote to Facebook on Tuesday after the Silicon Valley giant detailed plans for an expected U.K. election in an article for the Daily Telegraph. The company said it would set up a “dedicated operations center” to help remove content that breaks Facebook’s rules.

But with an election in the U.K. likely soon, Collins questioned the “focus on a decision by the platform to drop a ban on political advertising that have ‘deceptive, false or misleading content’ and instead only banning ads that “include claims debunked by third-party fact-checkers.”

Facebook is under fire from presidential candidates, lawmakers and privacy advocates for problems ranging from election security to alleged anti-competitive behavior.