Facebook, Twitter tightening rules on political ads

WASHINGTON — Twitter yesterday announced new guidelines to clearly mark political ads on its platform as Facebook said it began implementing a policy requiring labeling and verification of identities of those paying for political messages.

The moves by the two social media firms come in response to criticism over their role in allowing disinformation to spread during the 2016 US election, in many cases with the help of automated "bots" or disguised Russian-based accounts.

Facebook said its new policy would be in effect as of Thursday for ads in the United States on Facebook and Instagram. It intends to implement the same policy worldwide in the coming months.

Twitter meanwhile said it would begin enforcing a new policy in the coming months that would require "election labels" for US candidate ads, and require notarized forms that verify the advertisers are in the United States.

"We will not allow foreign nationals to target political ads to people who are identified as being in the US," a Twitter statement said.

Additionally, the Twitter names of "handles" used for political campaigning advertising will have stricter requirements.

"The handle's profile photo, header photo, and website must be consistent with its online presence and the Twitter bio must include a website that provides valid contact information," Twitter's Vijaya Gadde and Bruce Falck wrote in the statement.