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The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its supporters accounted for a lion's share of total political advertising worth over Rs 4 crore on Facebook, according to data compiled by the social media giant.
From February till 2 March, 2019, the social media giant showed 16,556 ads related to politics and issues of national importance with ad spends crossing Rs 4.13 crore, according to Facebook's Ad Archive Report.
The specific date on which Facebook started collecting data was not disclosed. However, on 7 February, it said the enforcement of the new features and the political advertisements policy, that includes having disclaimers, would start from 21 February.
Facebook is providing weekly aggregated insights for advertisements related to politics. Beginning 4 March, the report is being refreshed weekly, with data from Sunday to Saturday of each week, a company spokesperson said.
The page 'Bharatiya Janata Party' had an ad spend of Rs 6.6 lakh, while Shah's page had a spending of Rs 2.12 lakh.
Compared to this, the Congress and its supporters spend much lesser amounts with the highest being about Rs 48,000. Pages like 'Im with Congress', 'Congress Party admirers forum' and 'Vote for Congress' had spends of Rs 684, Rs 535 and Rs 490, respectively, during the February to March 2 period. Telugu Desam Party spend Rs 35,867 during the said period.
In February, Facebook had said political advertisements on its platform would carry a 'disclaimer' offering details about those responsible for running the ad as the social media giant looks to bring transparency into political ads ahead of elections in India. The Indian government had warned social media platforms of strong action if any attempt was made to influence the country's electoral process through undesirable means.
Facebook, which has over 200 million users in India, has stated that it is committed to creating a new standard of transparency and authenticity for political advertising on its platform and Instagram.
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