Facebook co-founder, Chairman and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill April 11, 2018 in Washington, DC.

Facebook will let people see fewer political ads, the social media giant said Thursday, responding to popular demand as it prepares for the upcoming U.S. presidential election.

The company announced a slew of new updates aimed at boosting transparency around such ads. The news comes as Facebook faces intense political scrutiny and after Twitter implemented an outright ban on political advertising. Google also limited the extent to which political groups can target users with paid posts.

Starting this summer, Facebook will "add a new control that will allow people to see fewer political and social issue ads on Facebook and Instagram," Rob Leathern, the company's director of product management, said in a blog post.

"This feature builds on other controls in Ad Preferences we've released in the past, like allowing people to see fewer ads about certain topics or remove interests."

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has previously defended the firm's policy on political ads. While politicians and campaigners have slammed the platform for allowing disinformation in such content — like an ad from President Donald Trump's reelection campaign that included false claims about Democrat presidential hopeful Joe Biden — Facebook has mostly held firm on the issue.

Facebook has insisted it won't fact-check political ads, arguing this could interfere with free speech in politics. Nor will it limit algorithmic targeting for such posts — though Facebook's Leathern said it had "considered doing so," but decided against this as 85% of spending from U.S. presidential candidates is on ad campaigns targeting audiences of more than 250,000 people.