Facebook to overhaul political ads, share some with US Congress

SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook on Thursday launched an overhaul of how it handles paid political advertisements on the world's largest social network, responding to criticism that it has not done enough to prevent the manipulation of elections.

Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said the company would start by sharing with US congressional investigators some 3,000 political ads that it says Russia-based operatives ran on Facebook in the months before and after last year's US presidential election.

Earlier this month, Facebook said an operation likely based in Russia spent $100,000 on thousands of Facebook ads promoting divisive messages.