Meta has announced the launch of enforcement around ads on social issues in India to bring in more transparency to the people and to enhance the integrity efforts around elections.
The enforcement will be applicable on ads around nine social issues topics – environmental politics, crime, economy, health, political values and governance, civil and social rights, immigration, education and security and foreign policy. “Starting December 2021, we are making the same authorisation process mandatory for advertisers that choose to run social issue ads on Facebook and Instagram. Any political, electoral or social issue ads on Facebook that do not have the correct authorisation or disclaimers will be removed from the platform and archived in a public Ad Library for seven years,” the statement further read.
“These additional transparency features are requirements for advertisers who want to run ads about social issues, elections or politics, and are designed to promote safe and healthy debate on influential topics, so that people can better understand who’s trying to influence them with ads. We are committed to protecting elections and increasing authenticity, transparency and accountability for advertisers to give everyone a voice on our platform and empower people to vote,” the statement said.
For ads about security and foreign policy, authorisation will be needed where the content includes “discussion, debate and/or advocacy for or against topics – including but not limited to foreign relations, trade policies, and disputed territories – are subject to review and enforcement.”
