Photo: VCG

There is an elegant solution to Facebook's chronic problem with political ads: it could stop running them altogether.

The $525 billion firm is the favorite punching bag for pols on both sides of the aisle. The latest fracas comes from the camp of Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren. The Massachusetts senator's campaign ran a fake ad on the social network suggesting that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is endorsing President Donald Trump in the 2020 US election. The point was to highlight Facebook's failure to fact-check dubious claims in its quest for profit. Facebook maintains that political advertising requires a higher bar for free speech. 

Social media firms are in a terrible position to police political ads, which often contain falsehoods. Such content usually enjoys additional legal protection thanks to the US Constitution's prohibitions on restricting free speech. The Federal Election Commission oversees campaign finance laws and is a more appropriate agency to deal with such issues. Designating that power to Facebook and others gives them greater influence over public discourse.

But without clear government rules, online platforms make up their own - with messy results. Twitter recently announced it would start flagging posts by public officials that violate their rules but are permitted because they are in the public's interest. Jack Dorsey's company, along with Facebook and Alphabet's Google, declined a request from the campaign of former vice president Joe Biden to take down a Trump ad making false accusations. CNN refused to run the ad but has aired others that contained inaccurate information.

That puts social media outlets in the awkward position of having to make judgment calls without being accused of bias. 

Conservatives already complain that Facebook stifles its voices; Zuckerberg has been hosting informal meetings with likes of Fox News commentator Tucker Carlson to smooth things over, according to Politico.

The outsized political spotlight is hardly worth it. For the 90-day period starting July 13 through October 10, Facebook raked in roughly $136 million from political ads, according to its tally of state-by-state spending. That's less than 1 percent of the $17.1 billion analysts forecast in ad sales for the third quarter, based on Refinitiv compilations. Folding up the political ad tent may be the winning move.

The authors are Gina Chon and Jennifer Saba, Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The article was first published on Reuters Breakingviews. bizopinion@globaltimes.com.cn