Money talks: Facebook will allow UK election candidates to run false ads
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, Facebook confirmed 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. Google-owned YouTube, however, allowed the Trump campaign to run a false ad. Google did not respond to a request for comment on Friday about its policy for the British election. [Continue reading…]