, Columnist
Facebook Ads Aren't a Threat to Democracy
But the company should impose tighter controls on ad sales and provide greater transparency like other media companies.
Media executive.
Photographer: David Paul Morris/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
Political pressure is gradually forcing Facebook executives to take responsibility for the content that appears on the social network, at this point mainly for the advertising. So far, they are doing a good job of avoiding the real subject.
On Wednesday, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg addressed the recent discovery that ads on Facebook could be targeted at "Jew haters" -- or, rather, at the small number of people who self-describe as such. Fixing that required temporarily ceasing all targeting by profession. Sandberg promised a new level of human oversight so that new targets would require approval from an actual Facebook employee.