China said Facebook acted unfairly to its largest media companies after the company news agency Xinhua and the fiery nationalist tabloid Global Times are now labeled "China state-controlled media", AFP reported.

China's MFA spokesman Geng Shuang criticized Facebook of selective enforcement and expressed hope the company would "abandon its ideological prejudice".

Facebook has earlier announced it will no longer allow state-owned media to post ads on their social networks. This step is part of the company's efforts to prevent foreign interference in US elections in 2020 after criticizing that it was not able to do so in the 2016 elections