Facebook is making big changes for advertisers and business page owners.
On Friday, the platform announced that any advertisers who want to boost Facebook posts that touch on political hot topics must now verify both their location and identity. Any advertisements or boosted posts that touch upon politics will also be labeled as such.
Rob Goldman, Facebook’s vice president of ads, and Alex Himel, Facebook’s vice president of Local & Pages, wrote a post in the company’s newsroom. It read, in part:
Last October, we announced that only authorized advertisers will be able to run electoral ads on Facebook or Instagram. And today, we’re extending that requirement to anyone that wants to show “issue ads” — like political topics that are being debated across the country. We are working with third parties to develop a list of key issues, which we will refine over time. To get authorized by Facebook, advertisers will need to confirm their identity and location. Advertisers will be prohibited from running political ads — electoral or issue-based — until they are authorized.In addition, these ads will be clearly labeled in the top left corner as “Political Ad.” Next to it we will show “paid for by” information. We started testing the authorization process this week, and people will begin seeing the label and additional information in the US later this spring.
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Here’s how the additional information on political ads will appear:
Facebook also said it’s enabling users to help identify advertisers that got missed by the authorization process. You can click on the three dots on the upper right-hand corner of any ad and select “Report Ad” to flag an unlabeled political ad.
Along with an additional scrutiny for ads, Facebook is also verifying popular business page owners and providing users with more information on these pages’ history.
Goldman and Himel wrote:
Today, we’re also announcing that people who manage Pages with large numbers of followers will need to be verified. Those who manage large Pages that do not clear the process will no longer be able to post. This will make it much harder for people to administer a Page using a fake account, which is strictly against our policies. We will also show you additional context about Pages to effectively assess their content. For example, you can see whether a Page has changed its name.
Facebook’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, also announced the changes with a Facebook post of his own:
Though not explicitly referenced by Facebook, the announcement signals moves the social media platform is making in advance of Zuckerberg’s appearance at congressional hearings this week to answer questions over Facebook allegedly sharing roughly 87 million users’ personal information with political consultancy organization Cambridge Analytica.
The measures are to counter some of the tactics apparently used by the Internet Research Agency, the Russian “troll farm” said to have manipulated Facebook in order to target American voters.One of the group’s most effective techniques was to set up pages that appeared to be run by passionate US-based campaigners. In some cases, these pages successfully encouraged people to take to the streets and engage in protests.
Just this week, Facebook suspended 273 accounts and pages tied to Russia’s Internet Research Agency. These pages didn’t have to do with elections abroad as much as with influencing Russian users. This is likely why Facebook wants pages to be verified, so it can prevent another IRA situation from happening again.
The platform tried its best to quell the backlash, and Facebook has been facing a growing PR crisis surrounding its data collection and sharing procedures. In March, Zuckerberg admitted in a CNN interview that mistakes were made— eventually apologizing to consumers.
Similar language was used in Facebook’s recent announcement.
Goldman and Himel wrote:
We know we were slow to pick-up foreign interference in the 2016 US elections. Today’s updates are designed to prevent future abuse in elections — and to help ensure you have the information that you need to assess political and issue ads, as well as content on Pages. By increasing transparency around ads and Pages on Facebook, we can increase accountability for advertisers — improving our service for everyone.
Though the announcement comes before Zuckerberg’s appearances on Capitol Hill, some say the social platform’s actions are too little, too late.
Overall, it’s a smart start that comes way too late. As soon as Facebook started heavily promoting its ability to run influential election ads, it should have voluntarily adopted similar verification and labeling rules as traditional media. Instead, it was so focused on connecting people to politics, it disregarded how the connection could be perverted to power mass disinformation and destabilization campaigns.
What do you think, PR Daily? How might these increased verification measures affect your Facebook PR and marketing efforts?
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