Josh Edelson / AFP via Getty Images Facebook has blocked a team of New York University researchers studying political ads and COVID misinformation from accessing its site, a move that critics say is meant to silence research that makes the company look bad. The researchers at the NYU Ad Observatory launched a tool last year to collect data about the political ads people see on Facebook. Around 16,000 people have installed the browser extension. It enables them to share data on which ads they're shown and why those ads were targeted at them with the researchers. Facebook said on Tuesday it had disabled the researchers' personal accounts, pages, apps and access to its platform.