Facebook to toughen up rules on political ads in countries with major elections

Social media giant Facebook has said it will toughen up existing rules on political advertising in all countries facing major elections this year, following scrutiny surrounding ads on its platform during previous events.

The firm said today that it will also expand some of its tools for curbing election inference, with Nigeria, India, Ukraine and the European Union first on the list.

Facebook has been subject to intense scrutiny by regulators and politicians, after it was revealed that adverts on its site had become a means for distributing fake news and other propaganda during the 2016 EU referendum and the US presidential elections.

Its director of product management Rob Leathern told Reuters that Facebook knows it won’t “be perfect, but our goal is continuing, ongoing improvement”.

As of today in Nigeria, only advertisers located in the country will be able to run electoral ads. This is similar to an approach tested by Facebook during the Irish referendum on abortion last May. The same policy will take effect in Ukraine in February.

In India, Facebook will trial the placement of electoral ads in a searchable online library from next month. The ads will be held in the library for seven years, to be used as a tool to combat interference. Similar libraries have been used by Facebook in the US, Brazil and the UK.

Leathern said the EU will receive a version of an authorisation and transparency system, which only permits individuals to buy ads if they pass an identity check on government-issued documents, before the bloc’s parliamentary elections in May.

The ad-hoc approach to different countries is the result of a rush to be prepared in time for early elections. A more global solution is promised in June.