Facebook won't go back on decision to stay out of political ad debate

Jan. 9 (UPI) -- Facebook said Thursday it won't change its decision to stay out of the debate over the truthfulness of political ads that appear on its platform, despite added pressure from lawmakers.

The social media giant was criticized by Democrats during the 2016 election campaign for failing to take action against ads they considered to be misinformation -- as well as Republicans who complained some conservative ads were unfairly censored.

Rob Leathern, Facebook director of product management, said in a post Thursday it's lawmakers, not private companies, who should set the rules on political ads.

"In the absence of regulation, Facebook and other companies are left to design their own policies," Leathern wrote. "We have based ours on the principle that people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and all, and that what they say should be scrutinized and debated in public.

"This does not mean that politicians can say whatever they like in advertisements on Facebook. All users must abide by our community standards, which apply to ads and include policies that, for example, ban hate speech, harmful content and content designed to intimidate voters or stop them from exercising their right to vote."

Facebook refused in October to take down an ad from President Donald Trump's campaign that targeted Democratic rival Joe Biden, which the former vice president said was misleading.

Earlier this week, Facebook introduced a new policy to ban edited "deepfake" videos that intend to mislead. The company said, though, satire or parody videos do not fall under that category. Critics answered by saying the exception could allow some disinformation to make it onto the platform.