Facebook to make ads details available to public

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Facebook said on Friday it would make advertising on its network more transparent, amid increased scrutiny of political spending on social media.

In the future, advertisers will be required to include a disclosure in election-related ads, which will read: “Paid for by,” Facebook said.

“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, vice president of ads at Facebook said in a blog post.

Goldman also said that the company would launch a publicly searchable archive next year containing details about the advertisements it runs related to US federal elections.

Details will include the size of spending and the demographics of the audience the ads reached. The archive, beginning with ads carried in 2018, will cover a rolling four-year period, he said.

Twitter said on Tuesday it would add labels to election-related ads and say who is behind each of them. /Photo via Reuters

Facebook Inc, Twitter Inc and Google have in recent weeks said Russian operatives bought ads and used fake names on their services to spread divisive messages in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential election.

On Tuesday, Twitter said it would add labels to election-related ads and say who is behind each of them, after a threat of regulation from the US over the lack of disclosure for political spending on social media.

Twitter also accused two Russian media outlets of interfering in the 2016 US election and banned them from buying ads on its network, after criticism it had not done enough to deter international meddling.

Facebook said its users will be able to view the ads on any page Facebook is running, whether or not they are the intended target audience for the ad.

The changes will test in Canada before being brought to the United States ahead of November 2018 elections, Facebook said.

Source(s): Reuters