Facebook’s chief of advertising integrity Rob Leathern who handled the company’s ad products around sensitive subjects such as politics and coronavirus misinformation, departed this week, according to an internal company post viewed by Reuters.

Rob Leathern, director of product management, said earlier this month on Facebook’s internal network that he would be leaving the company on Dec. 30. His exit had not been previously reported.

Leathern said in the post that he was “leaving Facebook to work on consumer privacy beyond just ads and social media,” without disclosing where he was headed.

Leathern was often the public face of the company's controversial political advertising policies. Prior to the November 3 US election, Facebook was heavily criticized for allowing misleading claims and conspiracy theories to spread widely on its platforms.

Earlier , Leathern had tweeted that Facebook did not have "the technical ability in the short term to enable political ads by state or by advertiser." Subsequently, Facebook lifted a temporary post-election ban on political ads in Georgia ahead of the January 5 runoff that will determine which party controls the US Senate.

As the chief of advertising integrity Rob had played the major role to protect the people and businesses who use Facebook’s commercial products by enforcing company’s  policies and preventing abuse. The company also built enhanced advertiser authenticity and transparency for all ads across Facebook and Instagram including for ads about social issues, elections and  politics. He has also been crucial in many decision making regarding monetization part of Facebook’s advertisements.

Source- Reuters

Country- U.S