Facebook rethinks news outlets for political ads amid global criticism

Facebook has been working on ways to boost more trustworthy news on its site, without judging the content itself

Facebook Inc. doesn’t know how news organisations will fit into an initiative to provide transparency for political advertising on its social network.

The company came up with a policy that puts news publishers in the same category as political publishers for the purposes of its new ad-transparency efforts. Facebook told media organisations they would have to verify their identities and have any ads promoting stories about politics placed in a public database, just like political campaigns would.

Within hours of a Bloomberg News report on the initiative and criticism from news organisations, Facebook decided to rethink its plan. It no