Thousands of UK political ads missing from Facebook archive searches
Technology News
December 10, 2019 / 3:12 PM / Updated 13 minutes ago
Elizabeth Culliford 4 Min Read
(Reuters) - Thousands of UK political ads went missing from Facebook’s searchable advertising database on Tuesday, hampering researchers’ ability to track political ads two days before Britain’s general election.
Facebook’s ad library, which it launched in the UK in 2018, is a public tool for users to track political advertising on the platform.
The problem, first reported by Sky News, affected ads from the ruling Conservative Party, the Brexit Party and the Liberal Democrats. It was not immediately clear if any Labor Party ads were affected.
Facebook declined to answer what caused the issue or when it would be resolved.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-facebook-advertising/thousands-of-uk-political-ads-missing-from-facebook-archive-searches-idUSKBN1YE2IH?il=0
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Social media companies have been sharing more information about political advertising after U.S. intelligence agencies found that Russia targeted American voters with social media content, including ads, to try and influence the 2016 election. Russia has denied the allegations.
In October, London-based privacy advocacy group Privacy International issued a report that said Facebook, Twitter and Alphabet’s Google still fail to provide adequate transparency for global users on the issue.
Facebook has also come under fire in recent months over its decision not to fact-check political ads. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has defended this stance by arguing Facebook does not want to stifle free speech, but he has also said that the company will look how the policy could be refined.
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