Along with 40+ organizations that stand against political misinformation and manipulation, the Institute for Nonprofit News calls on Facebook to withdraw its cease and desist demand for the Ad Observer plug-in tool.
Ad Observer allows journalists and researchers to better understand the political misinformation and manipulation that spreads daily on Facebook. It has been a resource for substantive reporting on the upcoming election, used by dozens of newsrooms, from Florida to Utah, from outlets like the Houston Chronicle and Missouri Independent to Buzzfeed and The Markup.
Facebook directed New York University to shut down its Ad Observer browser plug-in, a tool that allows Facebook users to volunteer to contribute information about the ads and ad targeting they encounter on the platform. Facebook also demanded that the project delete all the data it has collected.
The Ad Observatory project has revealed serious flaws in Facebook’s advertising transparency policies.
Read the entire open letter, published by the Mozilla Foundation.