Facebook Starts Labelling State-Controlled Media Posts, Will Block Ads

Facebook will start labeling Russian, Chinese and other state-controlled media organisations, and later this summer will block any ads from such outlets that target US users, it said on Thursday.

The world's biggest social network will apply the label to Russia's Sputnik, Iran's Press TV, and China's Xinhua News, according to a partial list Facebook provided. The company will apply the label to about 200 pages at the outset.

Facebook will not label any US-based news organisations, as it determined that even US government-run outlets have editorial independence, Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's head of cybersecurity policy, said in an interview.