Facebook wrongly removed key public health adverts

TENS of thousands of pounds’ worth of government coronavirus public awareness adverts were mistakenly pulled from Facebook after a labelling error.

Online advertising campaigns for NHS test and trace and social distancing were among those wrongly removed from Facebook and its sister platforms Instagram and Messenger as they were judged as political adverts.

It means that as lockdown rules were relaxed in July, key government messaging about the risks of spreading coronavirus failed to reach millions of its intended audience.

The error occurred following rules Facebook introduced in the wake of Russian interference in the 2016 US election.

The rules state that adverts relating to social issues, elections or politics must carry a disclaimer saying who paid for the adverts.

The Government’s public health adverts didn’t have a disclaimer and were wrongly judged as political adverts by Facebook’s algorithms and staff.

Facebook said it had now corrected the error and that the campaigns could now continue. The adverts, which ran in June and July, were taken down between July 15 and 31, Facebook said.

One of the campaigns, with the strapline “stay alert, control the virus, save lives”, cost the Government between £20,000 and £25,000.

Other adverts wrongly pulled were a campaign advising people to “avoid large crowds this weekend”, which first ran on July 2 and cost the Government between £2,000 and £2,500, an NHS test and trace advert, which cost between £35,000 and £40,000, and a campaign highlighting problems of domestic abuse during lockdown.

Between October 2018 and Aug 18 this year, the Government has spent £1,846,944 on Facebook advertising.

A spokesman for Facebook said: “Several UK government ads were incorrectly disabled for running without a ‘paid for by’ disclaimer and have been reinstated. We apologise for the error.”

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: “The Government has used social media channels and platforms to provide vital public health information to the public during the pandemic.”