Facebook stops sending staff to help political campaigns

Facebook will no longer send employees to work at the offices of political campaigns during elections, the company has announced.

The social network used to offer dedicated staff to political campaigns to help them develop their online advertising campaigns.

Donald Trump's digital director for the 2016 presidential election has said Facebook's assistance helped him win.

Facebook said rival Hillary Clinton was offered the same support, but declined.

The social network is the second largest online advertising broker, behind Google.

Google and Twitter also offer specialised advice to political campaigns. They have not indicated that they will end the practice.

Facebook said it would instead offer free advertising advice to all political parties through its website.

However, campaigns will still be able to get support online and the company did not rule out holding meetings with politicians.

According to internal documents seen by Bloomberg, Donald Trump's campaign spent $44m (£33m) on Facebook ads from June to November 2016, compared with $28m by Hillary Clinton's campaign.