“We want to help people better understand who’s behind the news they see on Facebook. Several months ago, we announced our plan to label media outlets that are wholly or partially under the editorial control of their government, and today we’re starting to apply labels to those state-controlled media outlets,” the statement said.

The statement added: “We’re providing greater transparency into these publishers because they combine the influence of a media organization with the strategic backing of a state, and we believe people should know if the news they read is coming from a publication that may be under the influence of a government. And to ensure we’re equally transparent when it comes to paid content from these publishers, we will begin labeling ads from these publishers later this year.”

“State-controlled media outlets rarely advertise in the US. Nevertheless, later this summer we will begin blocking ads from these outlets in the US out of an abundance of caution to provide an extra layer of protection against various types of foreign influence in the public debate ahead of the November 2020 election in the US.”

Where the labels will be shown

The labels will appear globally in the Ad Library Page view, on Pages, and in the Page Transparency section. In the US, the label will also start to appear on posts in News Feed over the course of the next week.

Later this summer, the company will apply the label to ads from state-controlled media outlets, starting with a few outlets and adding more over time.