Facebook’s imperfect attempt to shine a light in dark places

With its credibility under attack in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data misuse scandal and statesponsored interference in the 2016 US elections, Facebook rolled out its political advertising transparency rules in the US last May, followed by the UK in November.

Under the system, all advertisers who wish to run ads referencing political figures, political parties, elections, and past referenda that are the subject of national debate must verify their identity and location. The ads must also carry a ‘paid for by’ disclaimer showing who has bankrolled it.

All such political ads are stored in Facebook’s Ad Archive, a searchable repository of political or so-called ‘national issue’ ads. They remain visible for seven years. However, the widespread cull of adverts by Donald Trump’s hotels and golf resorts around the world shows its protocol for flagging ads is still being refined.

Facebook itself admits the system its inexact, even nine months after its launch. Not every ad that should be labelled is flagged, while other non-political ads are mistakenly flagged in so-called ‘false positive’ errors.

Some have also questioned the criteria for ‘national issue’ ads in the US, a list which issues such as abortion, civil rights, crime, government reform, guns, and poverty. Facebook does not have any such list in place in the UK. The company has also come under fire from the nonprofit journalism organisation, Propublica, after it blocked tools designed to let the public see exactly how Facebook users are being targeted by advertisers.

Despite the criticism over its machine learning capabilities and its wider commitment to transparency, Facebook is standing by its system for flagging political ads.

It said its machine learning model will improve as it screens more and more ads. In the meantime, it is adding more than 3,000 people to its human review team.

Having implemented the new transparency rules in India this month, Facebook now plans to implement them in Ukraine.

Sir Nick Clegg, the former deputy prime minister now employed as Facebook’s head of global affairs, has confirmed additional tools will be made available in the EU by late March ahead of the European Parliament elections.

MARTYN MCLAUGHLIN