FACEBOOK CLAMPS DOWN ON CAMPAIGN ADS

SAN FRANCISCO— Facebook Inc. on Thursday launched an overhaul of how it handles paid political advertisements, giving a concession to US lawmakers who have threatened to regulate the world’s largest social network over secretive election campaign ads.

The company also said it would turn over to congressional investigators the 3,000 political ads that it says were likely purchased by Russian entities during and after the 2016 US election.

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company, for the first time, would now make it possible for anyone to see any political ads that run on Facebook.

Facebook will also demand that political advertisers disclose who is paying for the advertisements, a requirement that under US law applies to political ads on television but not on social media.

Operation in Russia

Earlier this month, Facebook said an internal review had shown that an operation likely based in Russia spent $100,000 on 3,000 Facebook ads promoting divisive messages in the months before and after last year’s US presidential election. The company initially declined to turn over details on the ads to Congress.

Investigators are interested in other companies as well.

Representative Adam Schiff, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Com- mittee, said on Thursday that he wants to hear from Facebook, Alphabet Inc.’s Google, Twitter and others in public hearings.

The political advertising changes represent a retreat for Facebook, which for years has resisted calls the regulation of political ads.

Senator Mark Warner, the vice chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, this month compared political ads on social media to the “wild, wild West” and said legislation might be needed to address them.

Platform

Facebook has grown to be the leading online platform for political ads because of its low costs and tools for targeting messages to narrow audiences.

US political campaigns likely spent $300 million on Facebook ads during the 2016 election cycle, according to Nomura analysts, though the exact amount is unknown.

It remained unclear whether Facebook’s voluntary changes would satisfy demands for government action.

Trevor Potter, president of the pro-transparency Campaign Legal Center, said in a statement that his group would “carefully monitor Facebook’s implementation of this new policy.”

In the past, Facebook has argued that ad details had to remain confidential unless released by the advertisers.