Facebook - now front and center in the investigation into Russian election interference - has decided to make adjustments to its advertising policies and practices before it's forced to do so by law.
Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg shared on Facebook Live Thursday he cares deeply about protecting the integrity of the democratic process and doesn't want anyone using Facebook's tools to undermine democracy. To that end, he says, the social network will make political ads visible to all Facebook users no matter whom the advertiser chooses to target. They also will require advertisers to disclose who is paying for a political ad, the same way radio and television stations already do.
These and several other changes come as Facebook also agreed to give Congressional investigators the 3,000 political ads purchased by the Kremlin-linked Internet Research Agency that it discovered earlier this month. Special Counsel Robert Mueller obtained the ads though a search warrant, but Facebook previously refused to share them with Congress, citing company privacy policy.
Senators Mark Warner (D-VA) and Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) are writing legislation to formalize and expand on Zuckerberg's planned changes. In a letter to colleagues inviting co-sponsorship, the two explained their bill "would require digital platforms with 1 million or more users to maintain a publicly available file of all election-related ads bought by people who spend more than $10,000."