Facebook has imposed new rules to limit the reach of political groups that disguise their content as coming from local newsrooms, a crackdown that hits political ads from both the left and the right but in particular targets a big liberal advocacy group.
In a pivot from social media platforms targeting conservatives’ speech, Facebook’s new policy strikes a blow against Acronym, which pledged last fall to spend $25 million running leftist digital newsrooms in key battleground states during the 2020 campaign season.
Under Facebook’s new guidelines, digital newsrooms propped up by political activists may register as a news page, but they will be blocked from inclusion in Facebook News. Facebook said it could choose to ban news publishers from promoting their content if they fail to follow rules about misinformation and disclosure. Publishers will have to undergo an authorization and disclaimer process to run ads promoting their content about politics, elections and social issues.
“Organizations that Facebook believes are state-controlled media and registered news pages in the U.S. that have direct, meaningful ties to political entities are required to go through the authorization process when running ads about social issues, elections or politics and place ‘Paid for by’ disclaimers on such ads,” Facebook’s announcement says. “These ads will enter the Ad Library.”
While Facebook’s policy is one-size-fits-all, it is poised to hit one group in particular: Acronym. The “dark money” liberal group, which doesn’t disclose its donors, is relying on unwitting audiences to think its content is the same as local newsrooms’ journalism. Last fall, Acronym said it would run newsrooms in the battlegrounds of Arizona, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Wisconsin…
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