Facebook Ran Assad Sponsored Posts

Zuckerberg & Co. may one want to vet their sponsored content a bit more in the future. Facebook is getting heat for taking money from Bashar al-Assad’s reelection campaign to run sponsored content posts for his regime. On Monday, the Syria Campaign slammed Facebook for helping the Assad regime build its popularity and create a false sense of credibility. “By accepting money for ‘promoted posts,’ Facebook has provided a platform for the propaganda of a regime that has been at the heart of one of the world’s most brutal conflicts,” said the campaign’s Anna Nolan. Though the Facebook page for Sawa, Assad’s reelection campaign, has more than 200,000 likes, it won’t likely make the international community forget about the 162,000 that have died in the Syrian conflict in the past three years.