Facebook has not been in the news over the past two weeks for any good reasons, with its CEO being mainly to blame for this. That said a newly updated policy announced by the company will prove welcome for those wanting greater transparency about the content they see posted on the platform.

To that end Facebook has confirmed that it will be labelling content from state-owned media moving forward. This means that content that is posted by an organisation that is owned by a government, will now receive a label that at the very least, will prompt readers to question its source.

There is no guarantee that will indeed happen, but given how Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg in particular has noted that the company needs to make greater efforts when it comes to handling integrity during elections, this new label is a step in the right direction.

“We’re providing greater transparency into these publishers because they combine the influence of a media organization with the strategic backing of a state, and we believe people should know if the news they read is coming from a publication that may be under the influence of a government,” writes Nathaniel Gleicher, head of cybersecurity policy, in a blog post about this announcement.

“And to ensure we’re equally transparent when it comes to paid content from these publishers, we will begin labeling ads from these publishers later this year,” he adds.

The cybersecurity policy head goes on to note that state-owned organisations very rarely advertise in the US, but regardless of this, Facebook will block these ads in the event that they do occur.

With the company’s integrity coming heavily into question during the 2016 US presidential elections, we’re hoping more tools and efforts are being made for when the 2020 one kicks off in November.