Mozilla, Access Now, Reporters Without Borders, and 35 other organizations have published an open letter to Facebook.

Our ask: make good on your promises to provide more transparency around political advertising ahead of the 2019 EU Parliamentary Elections

Is Facebook making a sincere effort to be transparent about the content on its platform? Or, is the social media platform neglecting its promises?

Facebook promised European lawmakers and users it would increase the transparency of political advertising on the platform to prevent abuse during the elections. But in the very same breath, they took measures to block access to transparency tools that let users see how they are being targeted.

With the 2019 EU Parliamentary Elections on the horizon, it is vital that Facebook take action to address this problem. So today, Mozilla and 37 other organizations — including Access Now and Reporters Without Borders — are publishing an open letter to Facebook.

“We are writing you today as a group of technologists, human rights defenders, academics, journalists and Facebook users who are deeply concerned about the validity of Facebook’s promises to protect European users from targeted disinformation campaigns during the European Parliamentary elections,” the letter reads.

“Promises and press statements aren’t enough; instead, we’ll be watching for real action over the coming months and will be exploring ways to hold Facebook accountable if that action isn’t sufficient,” the letter continues.

Individuals may sign their name to the letter, as well. Sign here.

Read the full letter, here or below. The letter will also appear in the Thursday print edition of POLITICO Europe.

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The letter urges Facebook to make good on its promise to EU lawmakers. Last year, Facebook signed the EU’s Code of Practice on disinformation and pledged to increase transparency around political advertising. But since then, Facebook has made political advertising more opaque, not more transparent. The company recently blocked access to third-party transparency tools.

Specifically, our open letter urges Facebook to:

Roll out a functional, open Ad Archive API that enables advanced research and development of tools that analyse political ads served to Facebook users in the EU

Ensure that all political advertisements are clearly distinguished from other content and are accompanied by key targeting criteria such as sponsor identity and amount spent on the platform in all EU countries

Cease all harassment of good faith researchers who are building tools to provide greater transparency into the advertising on Facebook’s platform.

To safeguard the integrity of the EU Parliament elections, Facebook must be part of the solution. Users and voters across the EU have the right to know who is paying to promote the political ads they encounter online; if they are being targeted; and why they are being targeted.

The full letter