Facebook Expands Its Political Ads Transparency Tools Globally

Facebook requires advertisers to get authorised and add disclaimers to political ads in around 50 countries.

Facebook currently requires advertisers to get authorised and add disclaimers to political and issue-related ads in around 50 countries and territories.

(Photo: iStock)

Facebook’s transparency tools regarding political ads on its platform are going worldwide.

The social media giant is expanding the service to more countries, a year after it was launched in May 2018, Sarah Schiff, the company’s Product Manager said in a blog post.

Facebook currently requires advertisers to get authorised and add disclaimers to political and issue-related ads in around 50 countries and territories – with around 140 other markets where it’s not enforcing identity checks or disclaimers.

The transparency tools were extended to the UK in November last year, and came to India in December 2018. The EU also got the tools in March, before Australia and Canada.

Click here for the full list of countries where the service is live.

The transparency tool allows Facebook to disclose who is responsible for the ads, within the ad itself. For this, the company makes advertisers go through an authorisation procedure and add disclaimers to the ads.

“We already require that advertisers get authorized and add disclaimers to these ads in over 50 countries and territories, and now we’re expanding proactive enforcement on these ads to countries where elections or regulations are approaching, starting with Ukraine, Singapore, Canada and Argentina.” 

Sarah Schiff, Product Manager, Facebook

Facebook will also start reviewing ads in Ukraine and Canada through a combination of automated and human review. In Singapore and Argentina, the tools will roll out in the next few months.

“We also plan to roll out the Ad Library Report in both of those countries after enforcement is in place,” the blog post read. The Ad Library Report allows one to track and download aggregate spend data across advertisers and regions.

“For all other countries included in today’s announcement, we will not be proactively detecting or reactively reviewing possible social issue, electoral or political ads at this time.”

Sarah Schiff, Product Manager, Facebook