FT pulls Facebook ads in Great Britain

The Financial Times has pulled its advertising on Facebook in Great Britain due to concerns around the rules of political ads, reports Lucinda Southern of Digiday.

Southern writes, “The primary concern for the FT is any ad it buys in the U.K. that relates to a political content or figure must carry the logo ‘paid for by,’ blurring the line between journalism and political advocacy, in the eyes of the FT. Facebook has engaged in a wide-ranging push to bring transparency to political advertising in the wake of scandals arising from Russian interference in elections in both the U.S. and U.K.

“‘We don’t want advertising for the FT to be shown to be paid for by in the same way as political lobbying,’ said Jon Slade, global chief commercial officer at the publisher, speaking at a GroupM event on fake news in London this week. ‘That leads to a dangerous conflation of journalism and lobbying; they are not the same thing.’

“Facebook did not offer comment on the record for this piece, but a spokesperson highlighted that in the archive of ads with political content it draws a line between promoted news and political ads.”

Read more here.