Facebook says to block foreign state media ads for US election

Facebook says it will block ads from foreign state media during the US election, as well as allowing users to hide all paid-for political messages.

The move comes with the social media giant under growing pressure over its hands-off approach to misinformation and inflammatory posts -- including from Donald Trump -- and following criticism it turned a blind eye to foreign interference in the 2016 presidential poll.

Facebook's head of global affairs acknowledged the company fell short during the contentious poll in which it has acknowledged Russia-backed content reached as many as 126 million Americans on its platform.

Nick Clegg, writing in the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper on Wednesday, said the company would be "blocking all ads in the US during the election period from state-controlled media organisations from other countries." 

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Anyone running political ads on the platform would have to be authorized to do so, Clegg said, adding that between March and May Facebook had stopped "more than 750,000 political ads targeting the US from running because the advertiser had not completed the authorisation process."

He said the social media giant now had more than 35,000 people working on safety and security issues, three times the number of four years ago.

In a separate opinion piece, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said he wanted to use the vast reach of his company for good in this November's election.

The threat to democracy "is real and ongoing, but our systems are more prepared than ever."

Agence France-Presse