He also pledged to make political advertising more transparent on his network in future.

“We will work with others to create a new standard for transparency for online political ads,” he said in a live address on his Facebook profile.

He said political advertising will now carry disclaimers about which campaign or organisation paid for it.

He added that the company was continuing to investigate instances of foreign actors abusing its advertising platform, including Russia and other “former Soviet states”.

The move to share details with investigators comes after considerable public pressure for Facebook to be more transparent – and is being interpreted by some as an attempt to fend off any potential regulation from the US government.

What are the adverts?

Earlier this month it was revealed that politically-charged advertising had been targeted at American voters, paid for, Facebook believed, by Russian actors with links to the Kremlin.

The adverts did not support a specific candidate, Facebook said, but instead posted inflammatory information on hot topics, such as immigration.

The company said it would share details of those advertisements with a wide-ranging US investigation into Russian meddling in 2016’s presidential election.

Why is Facebook sharing them?

In a blog post explaining the move, Facebook’s head of policy, Elliot Schrage, wrote: “After an extensive legal and policy review, we’ve concluded that sharing the ads we’ve discovered with Congress, in a manner that is consistent with our obligations to protect user information, will help government authorities complete the vitally important work of assessing what happened in the 2016 election.

“That is an assessment that can be made only by investigators with access to classified intelligence and information from all relevant companies and industries – and we want to do our part.

“Congress is best placed to use the information we and others provide to inform the public comprehensively and completely.”

Democratic Senator Mark Warner, the vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, praised Facebook’s decision.

“We have never heard of this, we do not know anything about this, let alone have anything to do with these affairs,” he was quoted as saying by the state news agency Tass.

What is Facebook’s new advertising policy?

In his address, Mr Zuckerberg detailed how he planned to make political advertising more transparent, bringing it more in line with how broadcasts are regulated.

“When someone buys political ads on TV or other media, they’re required by law to disclose who paid for them. But you still don’t know if you’re seeing the same messages as everyone else,” he said.

“So we’re going to bring Facebook to an even higher standard of transparency. Not only will you have to disclose which page paid for an ad, but we will also make it so you can visit an advertiser’s page and see the ads they’re currently running to any audience on Facebook.”

Finally, Mr Zuckerberg said his firm was working to protect the integrity of the upcoming elections in Germany. He said action had been taken against thousands of “fake accounts”, and was partnering with the country’s Federal Office for Information Security.

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Source: BBC

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He had been due to meet French President Francois Hollande and open a new Orthodox church later this month.

But after France’s government said talks would be confined to Syria the visit was halted, French presidential sources said.

On Monday, Mr Hollande suggested Russia could face war crimes charges over its bombardment of Syria’s city of Aleppo.

The French presidency had told the Russians Mr Hollande would attend only one event with Mr Putin during the visit planned for 19 October – a working meeting on Syria, according to the sources.

But after this Russia “let it be known that it wanted to postpone the visit”, they added.

A spokesman for Mr Putin confirmed the trip had been cancelled, adding that the visit would take place when it becomes “comfortable for President Hollande”.

Despite this Mr Hollande has said he will meet Mr Putin at “any time” if it would “further peace”.

The development comes a day after Mr Hollande told French TV that prosecutions over Syria could take place in the International Criminal Court (ICC).

“These are people who today are the victims of war crimes. Those that commit these acts will have to face up to their responsibility, including in the ICC,” he said.

Neither Russia nor Syria is a member of the ICC.

Moscow has repeatedly denied attacking civilians, and says it targets terrorist groups in Syria.

The besieged east of Aleppo has come under intense aerial bombardment since a cessation of hostilities brokered by the US and Moscow collapsed last month.

The area was hit again on Tuesday in some of the heaviest air strikes in days, a monitoring group and activists said.

Eight civilians were killed in strikes on the Bustan al-Qasr and Fardos districts, according to the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

Diplomatic efforts to revive the ceasefire have so far come to nothing.

The UN has warned that eastern Aleppo, where an estimated 275,000 people still live, could face “total destruction” in two months.

Last week Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution drafted by France calling for an end to the bombing in Aleppo.

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Source: BBC

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