Comment on #Facebook political ads announcement

Catherine Stihler, chief executive of the Open Knowledge Foundation, said: “There is growing public demand for greater transparency around political adverts, with social media giants accepting money for ads which can contain disinformation. That has prompted positive changes from Google and Twitter, and Facebook’s promise of greater transparency is recognition of the need for change. However, it is deeply disappointing that Facebook has declined to change its policies on fact-checking or microtargeting. I would urge the company to reconsider this and work towards a fair, free and open future. But ultimately the long-term solution to this does not involve self-regulation, and requires analogue electoral laws to be updated for the digital age.”