Facebook Advertising Integrity Chief Leaves Company

(Reuters) – The head of advertising integrity for Facebook Inc, which managed the company’s advertising products around sensitive topics such as coronavirus policy and disinformation, left this week, according to an internal message from the company consulted by Reuters on Friday.

Rob Leathern, director of product management, said earlier this month on Facebook’s internal network that he would be leaving the company on December 30. His exit had not been reported before.

Facebook could not be reached immediately for comment.

Leathern said in the post he was “leaving Facebook to work on consumer privacy beyond ads and social media,” without revealing where he was heading.

Leathern was often the public face of the company’s controversial political advertising policies. Prior to the US election on November 3, Facebook had come under heavy criticism for allowing misleading claims and conspiracy theories to spread widely on its platforms.

In November, Leathern tweeted that Facebook did not have “the short-term technical capacity to allow political ads by state or by advertiser.” Facebook subsequently lifted a temporary post-election ban on political ads in Georgia ahead of the Jan.5 run-off, which will determine which party controls the US Senate.