Facebook rolled out new changes on Friday designed to improve the transparency of the political ads that the social media giant runs, one of several steps the company is taking after it was revealed Russia used the platform as part of its efforts to influence the 2016 election.
“When it comes to advertising on Facebook, people should be able to tell who the advertiser is and see the ads they’re running, especially for political ads,” Rob Goldman, Facebook’s vice president of ads, said in a blog post. “That level of transparency is good for democracy and it’s good for the electoral process. Transparency helps everyone, especially political watchdog groups and reporters, keep advertisers accountable for who they say they are and what they say to different groups.”
Beginning next month, users will be able to click “View Ads” on a Facebook page, which will show them all the active ads a company, organization, or other entity is running. Facebook said it will test the feature first in Canada and then will expand it to the United States next summer, ahead of the 2018 midterm elections.
The initial test of the “View Ads” feature will show only ads that are active. But when it’s expanded to the U.S., the company plans to start building an archive of ads related to federal elections that will include both current and historical election ads.
Each ad will also be included in a searchable catalog. The company plans to provide users with information about each federal-election related ad, including how much money was spent, the number of impressions that delivered, and the demographics of the audience the ads reached.
Facebook also said it’s going to require additional documentation from advertisers who want to run ads related to elections.
Under Facebook’s new guidelines, advertisers may have to verify their identity and location, and state that they’re running ads related to elections. Facebook will roll out the new verification process for U.S. federal elections and then expand to elections in other countries.
Once the details of the advertiser’s identity are verified, election-related ads will include a disclosure stating “Paid for by.” Clicking on the disclosure will provide users with additional information about the advertiser.
Facebook’s new guidelines come ahead of its appearance before the Senate Intelligence Committee on Wednesday, when general counsels for Facebook, Twitter, and Google will discuss how the platforms were used as part of Russia’s attempts to meddle in the 2016 election.
Facebook initially said there was “no evidence” Russian actors purchased ads on the platform tied to the presidential campaign, but the company then revealed last month a Russian “troll farm” purchased ads during the 2016 election.
The revelations prompted the social media company, as well as Twitter, to implement new policies to improve transparency of paid political ads and crack down on fake news.
