Facebook to Give Less Direct Support to Trump in 2020 Campaign

Facebook Inc. said that for future presidential campaigns, it will pull back from the kind of on-site support it gave Donald Trump for his 2016 presidential race -- a relationship that came under scrutiny by Congress.

The company will still offer technical support and basic training to candidate campaigns and political advocacy organizations, but it won’t visit campaign headquarters with as much frequency or provide as much strategic support as it did for Trump ahead of the 2016 election. Instead, Facebook officials said they are working to improve the company’s political advertising website to give free advice to campaigns more broadly.

Facebook told Congress it “offered identical support” to both campaigns. Trump’s campaign accepted, and Clinton’s didn’t. At the time, the company also disputed the use of the word “embed” to describe the relationship.