Facebook opposes a research project

The company "Facebook" asked New York University to terminate a research project on its practices in the level of targeted political ads under the pretext of violating the laws of the platform by collecting data on its users.

Laura Edelson, a researcher in the "Ad Observer" of New York University, wrote in a tweet on Twitter Friday: "A week ago, I (Facebook) sent me a message asking us to withdraw (Ad Observer) and delete our data."

Days before the US presidential elections scheduled for the third of November, Facebook’s performance is under tight control amid criticism of its role in campaigns and the way various political groups use tools in their behavior through Facebook to influence voters.

"The public has the right to know the method used to direct political advertisements, so we will not comply with this request," said Laura Edelson.

"Facebook" users can add the "Ad-Observer" feature on their Internet browsers, which allows copying the ads that appear to them on "Facebook" and including them in a list of general data, for the purposes of transparency and searching for means of advertising guidance for users.

A spokesman for the giant network, Joe Osborne, responded: "We informed New York University months ago that a project to collect data on (Facebook) violated our rules."

"Our advertising library, which is viewed by two million people a month, including New York University, provides more transparency on political ads than television, radio and any other digital platform," he added.

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