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Facebook's policies are based on the \"principle that people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and all, and that what they say should be scrutinized and debated in public,\" according to Leathern.

\"Ultimately, we don't think decisions about political ads should be made by private companies, which is why we are arguing for regulation that would apply across the industry,\" he wrote in the Thursday post.

He added, however, that the platform is \"not deaf\" to the criticism.

Leathern said people can opt to see fewer political ads if they choose and that the company has made updates to its Ad Library archives for increased transparency.

The announcement comes as the 2020 presidential election ramps up -- and as fellow social media giants Twitter and Google pledged to ban political ads and end targeting, respectively.

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