Facebook offers better transparency over political ads

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica and Russian election scandals – and just before its CEO is to testify before Congress – Facebook has announced plans to crack down on unauthorised political or ‘issue ads’.

In a blog post, the social media giant announced that it will extend its policy that only allows authorised advertisers to run political ads to ‘issue ads’ as well – ads that are designed to raise awareness or promote action over a perceived problem.

The change in policy comes after data analytics firm, Cambridge Analytica, collected data from millions of US Facebook profiles in order to influence voters at the US election through personalised political ads.

Russia also used Facebook to exploit divisions in American society and to help tip the 2016 presidential elections in favour of Donald Trump.

The ‘issue ads’ will have a label stating it is “Political” and users will also have the choice of reading “paid for by” information in a bid to offer more transparency over the origins of message.

Facebook has also been testing a new policy in Canada called ‘view ads’ which allows users to see the ads a page is running, a feature that will launch globally in June. A searchable political ads archive will also be released in the summer.

Additionally, pages with large numbers of followers are to undergo a verification process to be able to post content.