Who really runs that Facebook page? Soon, it'll be harder for them to hide. If a shady propaganda organization renames its Facebook page, or administers it from a different country, a leaked feature called "Page History" feature could give you the heads-up.
BuzzFeed got an early look at the feature due to what appears to be an accidental leak -- Facebook VP of Local Alex Himel tweeted that the company mistakenly pushed it live in Canada and Ireland before it was ready for prime time.
We announced earlier this year that we would make Pages more transparent, like show whether a Page has changed its name. https://t.co/g4luVciAeG. We mistakenly launched an early test to people in Canada and Ireland. 1/2
— Alex Himel (@ahimel) May 11, 2018
According to Himel, it'll be back within the next few weeks when the company's done working on it.
Speaking of Ireland: On May 25, the country is voting on whether to lift a ban on abortion, and both Facebook and Google are currently banning abortion-related political ads. They're trying to avoid letting internet groups potentially influence the outcome.
Facebook pointed us to Himel's tweet when we reached out for comment.
Disclosure: Sean's wife works for Facebook as an internal video producer.
Be respectful, keep it clean and stay on topic. We delete comments that violate our policy, which we encourage you to read. Discussion threads can be closed at any time at our discretion.