The Register Citizen (Torrington, CT)
Facebook goes transparent in political ads
Platform imposes new restrictions on campaign ads, ‘hot-button’ topics
Facebook’s crackdown on political misinformation is changing how users on the world’s largest social media site see election campaigns, one month before Connecticut’s many hotly contested primaries.
New restrictions on political advertising aimed at stopping Russian interference in the next American election now require candidates buying Facebook ads to verify themselves, and require those buying Facebook ads about “hot button” topics such as immigration or gun policy to be authenticated.
At the same time, Facebook is requiring all such ads to display who paid for them, and Facebook is posting galleries that show its 2.2 billion active monthly users information about the cost and the reach of those ads.
“This is quite an experiment for the primary in August leading up to the midterm election, and the 2020 presidential election,” said Rich Hanley, an associate professor of journalism at Quinnipiac University.
“Not only is this a realtime attempt to validate and categorize material, but it’s also a test of the system to see if it can reduce the fake ads, the propaganda, and the disinformation that contaminated the 2016 election.”
Candidates for the state’s top races are playing by Facebook’s new rules — with some reservations —and almost all the major party candidates in the race for governor, lieutenant governor and the 5th District are running ads under the new disclosure requirements.
“We have to find the voters where they are, and social media is a big part of where they are,” said Mary Glassman, the Democratic frontrunner for U.S. Rep. Elizabeth Esty’s seat. “The way you communicate with voters has changed dramatically, and if we are going to reach as many voters as possible, this is one main avenue to do that.”
The biggest buyers in the top races include Ned Lamont, the Democratic frontrunner for governor, with 48 active ads on Facebook, and Republican gubernatorial
candidates David Stemerman and Tim Herbst, with 13 and 12 active ads, respectively. Joe Markley, a GOP candidate for lieutenant governor, leads rivals with 14 ads. Glassman leads candidates for the 5th District with 15 active ads.
Many of the ads are known as boosted posts — photos or video with text and a link to the candidate’s website that display higher in users’ news feeds than regular Facebook posts, and reach a wider audience — usually for less than $100. More expensive ads range from several hundred dollars to several thousand dollars — such as a handful of four-figure ads taken out by Stemerman that attack the fiscal policies of outgoing Democratic Gov. Dannel P. Malloy.
Facebook crackdown
What’s different about this election year is Facebook users can see all the political ads of a candidate in one place — including ads that aren’t active, and ads that have been taken down by Facebook for disregarding the new policy, which went into effect at the end of May.
Users can also see who is paying for ads about heated issues such as abortion, illegal immigration, or gun policy, simply by typing keywords into a political content search window at facebook.com/politicalcontentads.
Some Republicans are concerned about that.
“I support the transparency measures undertaken by Facebook and other tech companies, and I am hopeful these additional measures will prevent foreign governments attempting to meddle in U.S. elections,” said Ruby Corby O’Neill, a retired psychology professor from Southbury who is running in the GOP primary for the 5th District. “However, I am deeply concerned that these measures will be biased against conservative ideals and result in political censorship.”
The hope is that Facebook’s new disclosure requirements, along with new policies on the social media giant Twitter, will avert a repeat of the 2016 election cycle, when 3,000 Russianbacked ads aimed at dividing Americans reached 125 million people on Facebook.
“Facebook is moving in the right direction to further strengthen transparency in political ad buys,” said Robert Blanchard, a top Lamont campaign official. “If we learned anything from the last election, transparency in political expenditures is critical in fair and open elections.”
Facebook’s changes come as the state’s hottest primary races heat up, and the focus changes from raising money to spending it.
As such, advertising on Facebook is essential not just as a cost-effective way to reach voters who may never pick up a newspaper or watch a network news broadcast, but as a way to target mainstream voters, based on their online profiles.
“A significant portion of our social media budget is going to Facebook ads,” said Marc Dillon, campaign manager for Mark Boughton, the GOP frontrunner for governor and the mayor of Danbury. “It certainly seems like Facebook has made significant, positive changes.”
‘A bit intrusive’
Not all Republicans agree. Manny Santos, the GOP frontrunner for the 5th District, was the only candidate in that race Friday who had not bought an ad on Facebook as of Friday.
“This new policy may make it easier for voters to distinguish who is actually putting out these ads, but the problem is it’s a cumbersome process to be authenticated,” said Santos. “And everyone in the campaign needs to go through it — I mean, it’s a bit intrusive.”
While observers said it’s too soon to assess whether Facebook’s crackdown is having an effect on social media deception, they said researchers could have a better idea after the November elections.
J.C. Barone, a professor of communication and media arts at Western Connecticut State University in Danbury, warned against expecting too much from Facebook, however.
“It’s a move in the right direction because Facebook and the other tech companies don’t want government regulation,” Barone said. “But do I think the next election will still be meddled with? Yes, I do.”