Facebook Inc on Thursday launched an archive of U.S. political ads that appear on the world's largest social network, showing who paid for them and other details, after an outcry over Russians' alleged purchase of such ads during the 2016 elections. Digital services such as Facebook, Twitter Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google and YouTube have upended how political campaigns reach voters in many countries because of their power at targeting ads at narrow audiences and their low cost compared to television ads. The archive begins with ads that ran in May. Clicking on the label will take people to a searchable archive with information such as the campaign budget, how many people saw it and the demographics of those people such as age, location and gender, Leathern said. The United States is entering a heated political season ahead Nov. 6 elections that will test the strength of President Donald Trump.

Source: dna May 24, 2018 18:00 UTC