Facebook to allow UK election candidates to run false ads
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CNN reports that a controversial policy allowing politicians to run false ads on Facebook will extend to the United Kingdom as the country prepares to vote in a historic December election, as Facebook confirmed this to CNN Business.
The policy is being championed by Facebook executive Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister of the United Kingdom who himself once complained about “lies” spread during the 2016 Brexit referendum.
The company will not fact-check ads run by British political parties and the thousands of candidates running for election to the House of Commons. Ads from other political groups, like the pro-Brexit group Leave.EU, will be subjected to fact-checking, the company confirmed.
The same policy in the United States has led to a backlash from Democratic presidential candidates, Congress, and even some Facebook employees. The scrutiny has prompted its Silicon Valley rival Twitter to announce that it would stop accepting political ads next month.
Chairman and CEO of Facebook Mark Zuckerberg . EPA-EFE/ERIK S. LESSER
After the 2016 referendum, Clegg, who wanted Britain to remain in the European Union, lamented to The Yorkshire Post about “the colossal scale of the lies spread by the Leave campaign.”
However, Clegg, who joined Facebook in 2018, does not believe Facebook should be responsible for fact-checking politicians.
