Rob Leathern DecemberPaulReuters joined Reuters in 2012 as part of its growing team. He quickly rose to become a vice president and product director. In this position, he oversaw the company’s political advertising policy. This policy limited the use of political ads and also fought fake news.
Facebook’s Controversial Political AD Policy
Facebook’s political ad policy has sparked widespread criticism, particularly in liberal quarters. Liberals want to see Facebook do more to police political content, while conservatives say the platform unfairly muzzles their views. The Facebook controversy has also raised questions about the role of technology companies in political policing. Facebook is the largest social networking platform in the world, and also owns Instagram and WhatsApp. Executives have said they see little benefit in changing the status quo.
In his last job at Facebook, Leathern DecemberPaulReuters focused on business integrity, ad integrity, and political misinformation. As a result, he has become a frequent spokesperson on the topic. Facebook’s political ad policies have long been under scrutiny, and they’ve been criticized for allowing false and misleading statements to spread.
Rob Leathern’s Departure from the Company
Facebook has lost a key executive who had been in charge of advertising integrity. Rob Leathern, who had joined the company in early 2017, was in charge of ad policies regarding misinformation, fake news, and politics. He announced his departure from the company on Dec. 30 via the company’s internal network, saying that he was moving on to focus on consumer privacy.
The news comes as Facebook continues to deal with a number of high-profile departures. Rob Leathern left the company to become VP of product at Google, while Damien Burns jumped ship to Twitch as SVP for EMEA. He was also a key executive in Facebook’s business integrity department, which focused on handling misinformation and hate speech.
Mark D’Arcy’s Departure from the Company
Facebook’s Mark D’Arcy has left the company after 10 years. He had been chief creative officer and vice-president of global business marketing. He will be replaced temporarily by Michelle Klein. His permanent successor will be Nicky Bell.
Rob Leathern’s New Role at Google
Earlier this year, Google announced its Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) initiative to improve mobile news and web experiences. Though the initiative has caused some controversy in the media industry, Google says it is building consensus and a clear roadmap for the program’s implementation. Meanwhile, a new VP at Google called Rob Leathern stepped in to help the media industry. Rob is an ad-tech veteran who recently co-founded a subscription service. The service allows publishers to charge a fee for content, and then opt out of any advertising.
Controversial Political Advertising Policies
Rob Leathern DecemberPaulReuters previously led the Facebook ad team, and was the face of its controversial political advertising policies. He has been criticized for allowing false and misleading claims to spread on the site. In November, he tweeted that Facebook did not have the technical capability to allow political ads by state. In December, Facebook lifted its temporary ban on political ads in Georgia ahead of the Jan. 5 runoff election, which will determine control of the U.S. Senate.
Facebook’s Rob Leathern Leaving Post
Rob Leathern is leaving his post as Chief of Advertising Integrity at Facebook, effective December 31, 2018. His time with Facebook coincided with the presidential election and the rise of Donald Trump, making him a public figure. His departure was announced on the company’s internal social network, and he said he would make an announcement about his next career move later this month.
Final Words:
While at Facebook, Rob Leathern was a strong advocate of ad transparency and business integrity, which was a major issue for the company. After serving as director of product management, he was promoted to lead the business integrity team. During his tenure at Facebook, he also worked on policies for political advertising. The social networking giant was heavily criticized for allowing false claims and conspiracy theories to spread.
