Facebook plans to block political ads from the social media platform in the days leading up to the U.S. presidential election.
The measure would revolutionize CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s policy. He has so far refused to intervene in reports from political parties, activists or campaign agencies, as this would amount to censorship.
Critics blame Facebook for spreading a lot of fake news, hatred and disinformation through the social medium.
The refusal to delete particular messages recently prompted many large companies to stop ad campaigns through Facebook.
They thereby responded to the call for a boycott of the social media company by anti-racism activists, who are angry that messages that incite violence against Black Lives Matter protesters are not being removed.
Facebook and other social media were a favoured means of spreading fake news prior to the 2016 United States presidential election.
From Russia, organizations placed tens of thousands of misleading messages and advertisements through fake profiles that were supposed to cause division, Facebook itself admitted. After those influence attempts, the platform tightened its criteria for advertisers.
