Facebook to increase accountability for advertisers around elections

Facebook is looking to create transparency for all its advertising around the elections. 

 

In December, the group had announced that advertisers were able to begin authorisations on mobile — verifying their identity and location to run political ads. 

 

Now, ads that reference political figures, political parties, elections and ads that advocate for or against legislation will show users 'Published by' or 'Paid for by' disclaimers. 

 

Additionally, users can access a searchable 'Ad Library' to learn more about ads related to politics. Users will also start seeing the country locations of the people managing Pages that run political ads to better understand the origin of the Page.

 

Enforcement of these new features and the Political Ads policy begins on 21 February. Post this, only advertisers who have completed authorisations and will be allowed to run political ads in India. 

 

In a statement, Shivnath Thukral, public policy director, India & South Asia and Sarah Schiff, product manager, urged the support of its users.

 

They said, "Our systems won't catch every political ad that runs — so reports from others will be key. If people come across an ad and think it should include a disclaimer, they can tap the three dots at the top right-hand corner of the ad, and select 'report ad'. If we find the ad relates to politics, we'll remove it and add it to the Library, where it will be accessible for seven years. News publishers who are members of or appear in recognised industry groups and lists — or who have been validated by official sources in India — are not subject to the authorisations, transparency and enforcement requirements provided by the policy. By increasing transparency around ads and Pages on Facebook, we hope to increase accountability for advertisers, help people assess the content they're seeing and prevent future abuse in elections."