Facebook political ads to have disclaimers
People can also access a searchable library to learn more about advertisements related to politics and know who saw them
Advertisements that reference political personalities, political parties and elections on social networking site Facebook in India will now carry disclaimers about who published and paid for the ad, the company said on Thursday.
India is a key market for Facebook with 217 million people using the platform every month.
“This will give people more information about who’s responsible for the ads they see. People can also access a searchable ad library to learn more about ads related to politics, including range of impressions and spend and demographics of who saw the ad.We’re committed to creating a new standard of transparency and authenticity for political advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Ahead of India’s general elections, we’re making big changes to ads,” said Shivnath Thukral, Public Policy Director, (India & South Asia) and Sarah Schiff , Product Manager at Facebook in a joint blogpost published by the company.
The Facebook ad library will be a repository of information about the ad, including its content, the start and end date of the ad campaign, performance data including range of impressions, range of spend, and information about who saw the ad, including age, gender and location across India.
In December, the company asked advertisers to verify their identity and location to be able to run political ads on Facebook .
“In the coming weeks, people will start seeing the country locations of the people managing Pages that run political ads to better understand the origin of the Page,” stated the blogpost.
From 21 February only advertisers who have completed authorizations and disclosed who is responsible for an ad will be allowed to run political ads in India.
“We will remove political ads running without a disclaimer in News Feed and will place them in the Ads Library,” the company said. Users can also help by reporting ads that are violating Facebook’s political ads policy.
Facebook and Google dominate the ~10,819 crore digital advertising market in India.
Concerns around protection of user privacy, freedom of speech, harassment by Internet trolls, spread of misinformation and fake news, have plagued Facebook globally and in India.
In 2018, the government warned social media platforms such as Facebook of “stringent action” in case of any attempt to sway the country’s electoral process took place on their platform. Facebook has been ramping up its “election integrity” efforts in the country in the run up to the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. For the recently concluded state elections held in Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Rajasthan, Facebook put together a “task force” to handle
IN DECEMBER, FACEBOOK TOOK DOWN 9 PAGES IN BANGLADESH AFTER IT HEARD OF SOME COORDINATED INAUTHENTIC ACTIVITY IN THE RUN UP TO THEIR GENERAL ELECTIONS HELD ON 30 DEC