Facebook launches disclaimers on political ads showing who bought them

After controversy over Russian ads targeting US election, company creates searchable archive of political advertising

Six months after acknowledging it had run advertisements purchased by a Russian influence operation during the 2016 US presidential campaign, Facebook launched new political ad labels in the US disclosing who paid for them.

Also starting Thursday on Facebook and Instagram, users will be able to search an archive of election and political issue ads in the US for all the political ads by a given candidate or organization. The archive will also allow users to see limited demographic information - age, gender and location - about the audience who saw the ad.