Facebook Can't Leave Advertising on Autopilot

Internet companies live in fear of being labeled censors. Google, Facebook, Twitter and other big web companies squirm when politicians or other people demand they decide which photos, news articles and other forms of speech are appropriate within their digital walls. That's why the companies tread carefully even when it comes to policing activity by terrorist groups on their sites.

I understand their discomfort. We can debate whether Facebook should kick white supremacists out of its virtual nightclub of 2 billion people. But Facebook has no excuse for how lax it is about policing its own advertising business. The company makes it too easy on itself to generate revenue from people abusing its technology as megaphones for vitriol, scams and foreign propaganda.