Facebook tightens issue ads, political ads to prevent election interference
In the wake of waves of criticism, Facebook continues to institute more changes to its platform — including new stringent rules for those placing issuebased ads — in an effort to thwart future election interference.
Advertisers who want to run political or issue ads on Facebook now must have their identity and location verified, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a post Friday.
“Any advertiser who doesn’t pass will be prohibited from running political or issue ads,” wrote Zuckerberg, who is scheduled to appear before Congress next week. “We will also label them and advertisers will have to show who paid for them. We’re starting this in the U.S. and expanding to the rest of the world in the coming months.”
Political and issue ads proved powerful in the 2016 presidential election, and there are fears of a repeat of such influence over this fall’s midterm elections.
Last fall, Facebook told lawmakers it would tighten its ad policies after disclosing that more than 3,000 ads were bought by 470 fake accounts and pages run by the Internet Research Agency, a shadowy organization in St. Petersburg, Russia.
Those ads targeted Facebook users on hot-button subjects including gun rights, gay rights, religion and presidential candidates Trump and Hillary Clinton.
Facebook subsequently revealed that the reach of those ads and other posts exceeded what it had originally stated, impacting 146 million Americans.
The social network’s announcement Friday could allay concerns of election experts and lawmakers that ads about hot-button social issues meant to be divisive and foment voter outrage might still slip through, leaving a dangerous weak spot on the network.
“Facebook’s announcement that they will include issue ads in their forthcoming transparency tool, and has endorsed the enactment of the Honest Ads Act, is a welcome step and will add to public awareness about who is paying for advertising content on the platform,” said Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., in a statement. Schiff is the highest ranking Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, one of three congressional committees investigating Russian interference in the 2016 election.
The Kremlin-linked IRA, he said, “took advantage of contentious political issues to divide Americans through social media advertising — this move by Facebook will help blunt those attempts in the future.”
Facebook will work with third parties to develop a list of key issues to track, Rob Goldman, vice president of ads, and Alex Himel, vice president of local and pages, said in a separate post on the Facebook blog. “To get authorized by Facebook, advertisers will need to confirm their identity and location,” they said. “Advertisers will be prohibited from running political ads — electoral or issue-based — until they are authorized.”
These steps would seem to satisfy requirements lawmakers had sought from the social network in the bipartisan Honest Ads Act.
“Most of the paid ads the Internet Research Agency ran on Facebook prior to the 2016 election didn’t mention Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump — but they did mention divisive political issues like guns, LGBT rights, immigration, and racial issues,” said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., who along with Sens. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and John McCain, R-Ariz., have sponsored the bill.