Following the growing trend of integration between social media and politics, Facebook has formed its own political action committee.
According to reports, Facebook will use the platform to distribute cash donations to candidates in the upcoming US elections.
A Facebook spokesperson says: “FB PAC will give our employees a way to make their voice heard in the political process by supporting candidates who share our goals of promoting the value of innovation to our economy, while giving people the power to share and make the world more open and connected.”
The news follows the social network's town hall meeting with top House Republicans, on the same day as LinkedIn's town hall with Barack Obama on Monday. Google also co-sponsored a Republican presidential debate with Fox News last week.
Google formed its political action committee in 2006, and has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to campaigns.
While Facebook has not released any further details about its political action committee, the company registered the Internet domains FBPAC.org and FBPAC.us on Monday.
Political trend
According to Twitter, the political ads will function in the same way as the existing Promoted Products do, but will be given their own special icon. When users hover over political ads, they will see a pop-up disclaimer that identifies who paid for the ad.
“We're piloting the programme with a small group of presidential candidates and national party committees,” said Twitter.
“These partners will be running ads in the coming week. We will expand the pilot to include other candidates and committees as we build up our political sales team.”
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