Facebook allows pro-Bloomberg posts from paid staffers, may change that now

Facebook is reportedly considering making it just a wee bit clearer that pro-Bloomberg political campaign posts come from paid staffers on Michael Bloomberg's political campaign. Yes, 2020 is bonkers.

Facebook is considering ways to show when a paid campaign staffer shares a political post on the site, reports Julia Boorstin at CNBC.

This comes after Democratic presidential candidate Mike Bloombergs campaign said it was paying staffers to post on social media on its behalf.

Oh.

Excerpt from CNBC on Friday:

Facebook is concerned about a lack of transparency in how Mike Bloombergs field organizers are using the platform to advocate for his presidential campaign, without identifying that they work for him, according to a source at the company. The source said Facebook is considering taking steps to make it clearer that the people posting messages of support are paid employees.

Facebook has taken a range of steps to improve transparency around political advertising since the Cambridge Analytica scandal in March 2018. A New York Times report revealed that the political consulting firm improperly obtained information about Facebook users, then used that information to target political ads supporting Donald Trumps 2016 presidential campaign.

Among other changes, Facebook now tags all political and issue ads, keeps a library of them and has built an interactive database of all political and issue ad purchases.

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Facebook is considering making clearer that pro-Bloomberg posts come from paid staffers[Published Fri, Feb 21 202011:14 AM EST] Read the rest