US elections: Facebook says political candidates can use sponsored memes

Facebook announced on Friday that it would allow political campaigns and candidates to pay creators for sponsored content on Instagram and Facebook, so long as the posts follow the company’s disclosure guidelines.

Each piece of sponsored political content must use Facebook’s branded content tool, which states at the top of the post that the creator was paid for it and by whom.

The announcement followed the news that Michael Bloomberg’s campaign had contracted a group of meme creators to post advertisements for his candidacy. After those posts appeared on Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, several campaign representatives reached out to Facebook