Facebook won’t be fact-checking any political ads placed during General Election

Facebook has confirmed it will not fact-check any political ads placed by candidates in the run up to next month’s General Election.

Adverts from groups like Leave.EU will be vetted and politicians will be prevented from posting links to already-debunked material.

However, individuals standing for election on December 12 will not be subject to the same scrutiny and would technically be free to repeat the same false information, the company confirmed to CNN.

The social media giant announced in September that posts by politicians would be treated as ‘newsworthy content’ which should ‘be seen and heard’.

MP Damian Collins, who has chaired parliamentary hearings into the platform, said people should not be allowed to spread falsehoods simply ‘because they are paying Facebook to do so’.

It comes after Facebook pulled government-backed adverts promising investment placed in key swing constituencies which it deemed ‘were not correctly labelled as being about social issues’.

‘Ads about social issues, elections or politics that appear on our platforms should include a disclaimer provided by advertisers,’ a spokesman said.