Facebook vows more transparency over political ads

WASHINGTON – Facebook is taking steps toward more transparency in the political ads on its site. The social media giant is moving to verify advertisers and make it clearer who is spending money on ads. The announcement comes just before next week’s congressional hearings on Russian interference in last year’s elections.

Facebook executives say they will verify political ad buyers in federal elections. The site will also create new graphics where users can click on the ads and find out more about who’s behind them.

More broadly, Facebook is building new transparency tools in which all advertisers — even those that aren’t political — are associated with a page, and users can click on a link to see all of the ads any advertiser is running.