Facebook rolled out new changes on Friday designed to improve the transparency of the political ads that the social media giant runs, one of several steps the company is taking after it was revealed Russia used the platform as part of its efforts to influence the 2016 election.
“When it comes to advertising on Facebook, people should be able to tell who the advertiser is and see the ads they’re running, especially for political ads,” Rob Goldman, Facebook’s vice president of ads, said in a blog post. “That level of transparency is good for democracy and it’s good for the electoral process. Transparency helps everyone, especially political watchdog groups and reporters, keep advertisers accountable for who they say they are and what they say to different groups.”
