Facebook's Advertising Integrity Chief Rob Leathern Leaves Company

Leathern said that he was "leaving Facebook to work on consumer privacy beyond just ads and social media."

By Reuters | Updated: 2 January 2021 10:50 IST

Facebook's Advertising Integrity Chief Rob Leathern Leaves Company

Facebook's controversial political advertising policies had Rob Leathern as the public face

Highlights

Facebook Director of Product Management Rob Leathern left the company
He posted his departure on the company's internal network
Facebook has been criticised for allowing misleading claims

Facebook's chief of advertising integrity, 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 on Friday.

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

Facebook could not immediately be reached for comment.

[Sponsored] Samsung Galaxy S24: The Ultimate Camera Phone With Smarter On-Device AI

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.

After almost 4 years, I made the difficult decision to leave Facebook, and 12/30/20 was my last day at FB. I've had a great experience in a difficult, fun, fast-growing and impactful role at the company working with amazing people. I was honored to call them colleagues! (1/12)
— Rob Leathern (@robleathern) January 1, 2021

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

Facebook Reveals Top India-Specific Moments on Social Network of 2020

In November, 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.

© Thomson Reuters 2020

Is HomePod mini the best smart speaker under Rs. 10,000? We discussed this on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.

Affiliate links may be automatically generated - see our ethics statement for details.

Comments

For the latest tech news and reviews, follow Gadgets 360 on X, Facebook, WhatsApp, Threads and Google News. For the latest videos on gadgets and tech, subscribe to our YouTube channel. If you want to know everything about top influencers, follow our in-house Who'sThat360 on Instagram and YouTube.