The Arizona Republic

Facebook removes ads wrongly deemed political

Facebook takes down ads that mention race, nationalit­y or identity, calling them political

- Jessica Guynn

Dozens of advertisem­ents removed from Facebook for being political ahead of the November midterm elections did not appear to express any political view, a USA TODAY analysis showed.

SAN FRANCISCO – A Facebook advertisem­ent celebratin­g Hispanic Heritage Month from a health insurance company. A profession­al women’s club showcasing black dolls so children can see “beautiful reflection­s of themselves.” Prostate cancer screenings for AfricanAme­rican men in Colorado and cervical cancer screenings for Hispanic women in Ohio. A pledge in Spanish for fast loan preapprova­l from a mortgage company.

Dozens of advertisem­ents removed from Facebook for being political ahead of the Nov. 6 midterms did not appear to express any political view, a USA TODAY analysis showed. The ads from businesses, universiti­es, nonprofits and other groups did seem to have something in common: They mentioned “African-American,” “Latino,” “Hispanic,” “Mexican,” “women” or “LGBT” or were written in Spanish.

Even offers of free delivery from Chipotle Mexican Grill were mislabeled as political until an inquiry from USA TODAY. Laurie Schalow, the chain’s chief communicat­ions officer, said Facebook “corrected the error” after being alerted.

Facing a flood of criticism over its failure to stop foreign interferen­ce during the 2016 presidenti­al campaign, Facebook adopted stricter advertisin­g disclosure­s this year for political campaigns and for contentiou­s national issues. In addition to

deploying artificial intelligen­ce to sift through ads, Facebook said it would add thousands more moderators to manually review the text, images and targeting of ads and would create an online archive of political ads.

The changes were intended to give Facebook users a window into how political advertiser­s seek to sway voters on social media and to help stop meddling from shadowy organizati­ons such as Russia’s Internet Research Agency. Investigat­ions by USA TODAY found that the Russian social media campaigns with the aim of amplifying political discord during the 2016 campaign overwhelmi­ngly focused on what is arguably America’s rawest political division – race – and sought to inflame Hispanic tensions over immigratio­n after President Donald Trump was elected.

Now complaints are piling up that Facebook is miscategor­izing ads as political when they are not. Flagging ads that mention race and identity points to the tense climate that has thrust Facebook into the uneasy role of arbiter of political discourse.

Many of the ads USA TODAY found were inadverten­tly flagged by humans or machines, Facebook said. But these mislabeled ads represent a small slice of the over 1million political ads on the platform, said Rob Leathern, director of product management at Facebook.

“At the scale that we are doing this, there are going to be mistakes,” Leathern said. “We rely on a combinatio­n of machines and humans. Sometimes machines make mistakes. Sometimes humans make mistakes. Sometimes both.”

He declined to provide the guidelines moderators are given.

“We find that there are people who try to game the system if we provide detailed guidelines of how we review things,” he said. “We want transparen­cy wherever possible, but ... we also have to anticipate a cat-and-mouse game with very sophistica­ted adversarie­s.”

Under the new rules, advertiser­s who want to buy Facebook political ads in the United States must register as political advertiser­s and prove who they are and that they live in the country. Any ad that Facebook says is political in nature or touches on a broad list of issues of national importance such as education, abortion, the economy, poverty and taxes – including ads that have been rejected as political after they began running – are taken down and placed in a publicly available online archive maintained by Facebook.

Among them is an ad placed by Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority, a Greek organizati­on for African-American college women, for 3D mammograms to promote breast cancer awareness in Houston. It was removed after being categorize­d as political for advocating for women’s health, falling under health care as an issue of national importance, according to Facebook.

This isn’t the first time Facebook has been criticized by news outlets and other groups and businesses for being overly aggressive in defining what’s political. The Menlo Park, California, company says “false positives” – ads mistakenly labeled as political – can be found in all categories from the environmen­t to health care.

Blocking gay-themed ads or ads along racial or ethnic lines raises troubling questions, said Chad Williams, professor of history and African and Afro-American Studies at Brandeis University in Massachuse­tts.

His department’s job posting for a professor of black feminism and queer studies was rejected as political by Facebook. Another ad placed by the Brandeis University Alumni Associatio­n highlighti­ng its first black graduate was blocked. Facebook reviewed both ads at USA TODAY’s request and found they were removed in error.

“There is certainly nothing inflammato­ry or intentiona­lly divisive about sharing our job post on Facebook. We are not trying to start a race war,” Williams said. “We are just trying to get somebody hired.”

 ?? USA TODAY NETWORK ILLUSTRATI­ON ?? Facebook says it mislabeled this ad for a job opening at Brandeis University as political. FACEBOOK
USA TODAY NETWORK ILLUSTRATI­ON Facebook says it mislabeled this ad for a job opening at Brandeis University as political. FACEBOOK
 ?? FACEBOOK ?? Facebook says this ad for Rosa, a foster child searching for a home, is political because she mentions being a defender of LGBTQ+ rights.
FACEBOOK Facebook says this ad for Rosa, a foster child searching for a home, is political because she mentions being a defender of LGBTQ+ rights.

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