By Jennifer Y Omiloli
Facebook is set to extend some of its political advertising rules and tools to prevent election interference to India, Nigeria, Ukraine and the European Union.
Both Nigeria and Ukraine are to hold presidential elections in February and March respectively. The Lok Sabha election in India is likely to hold between April and May, while the EU is set to have its polls in May.
Rob Leathern, a director of product management at Facebook, told newsmen that the company will move electoral advertisements in a searchable online library in India beginning February.
“We are learning from every country, we know we are not going to be perfect, but our goal is continuing, ongoing improvement.” he said.
Leathern explained that the archive will be similar to those brought to the United States, Brazil and Britain in 2018 and will contain contact information for some advertisement buyers or their official regulatory certificates. He stressed that Facebook will ensure that the listed names of individuals buying advertisements match their government-issued documents.
“This is a library of all ads related to politics from a particular advertiser as well as information like the budget associated with an individual ad, a range of impressions, as well as the demographics of who saw the ad.” the website stated last month when it announced a number of measures to prevent the abuse of its platform ahead of the elections.
Users who want to use Facebook services for political advertising in India will now need to confirm their identity and location and also give the platform more details about who is placing the ads. Facebook will also start showing a disclaimer on all political advertisements giving more information about who placed them, along with the online searchable advertisement library accessible to all.
Facebook’s Director of Global Politics and Outreach Katie Harbath said that only advertisers located in Nigeria will be able to run electoral advertisements beginning Wednesday. The same policy will be followed in Ukraine as well.
Facebook also said it is still considering policies for Australia, Indonesia, Israel and the Philippines, which are due to hold elections this year.
