Katie Harbath, Public Policy Director, Global Elections, Sarah Schiff, Product Manager
Learn more about political ads and how Facebook protects elections.
Updated October 16, 2019 at 9am PT:
Based on feedback from advertisers, we are working to streamline the process for creating new “paid” advertising disclaimers in the United States. To give all advertisers time to complete the approval process, we are extending the compliance deadline to November 7, 2019.
First published on August 28, 2019 at 3am PT.
People need to know who is trying to influence their votes, and advertisers should not be able to hide who is paying for their ads.that’s why Over the past few years, We’ve made important changes to make ads about social issues, elections, and politics more transparent and trustworthy.
Today, we’re sharing additional steps we’re taking to protect elections and prepare for the 2020 U.S. elections. These measures include strengthening the approval process for U.S. advertisers, showing people more information about each advertiser, and improving U.S. society to better reflect public discourse on and off Facebook. This includes updating the list of issues.
New disclaimer requirements
We started soliciting advertisers in 2018 to receive approval Before running ads about social issues, elections, or politics.Also, those advertisements advertising library Therefore, it will be published for 7 years.
The approval process already requires U.S. advertisers to show identification to verify who they are and where they are located. Advertisers must also include a “Payment Amount” disclaimer in their ads to communicate their responsibility for the ad. Despite these requirements, there are many cases where advertisers attempt to include misleading “amount paid” disclaimers in their ads. So, sStarting in mid-September, advertisers will be required to provide detailed information about their organization before reviewing and approving a disclaimer. If this information is not provided by mid-October, your ads will be paused. Although the certification process is not perfect, It helps verify the legitimacy of an organization and provides people with details about who is behind the ads they are seeing.
Advertisers have five options to provide details, three of which indicate they are registered with the U.S. government. Selecting one of the three government resource options will allow you to use your registered organization name in your disclaimer, and the “i” icon in the top right corner of your ad will say “Verified Organization” .
In addition to providing For a U.S. address, phone number, business email, and business website to match that email, you must provide one of the following:
- Tax Registration Organization Identification Number (EIN)
- Government website domains matching emails ending in .gov or .mil
- Federal Election Commission (FEC) identification number
We also want to enable advertisers who don’t have these qualifications, such as small businesses and local politicians, to run ads about social issues, elections, and politics. Advertisers can also choose one of her two options:
- Submit your organization name with a verifiable phone number, business email, mail deliverable address, and business website with a domain that matches the email.
- Please do not provide any organizational information and rely solely on it. The legal name of the page administrator as it appears on the personal identification document. With this option, advertisers: do not have You can use your registered organization name in your disclaimer.
For advertisers who choose one of these two options, the “i” icon will say “About this ad” instead of “Verified organization.”
The “i” icon helps Facebook and Instagram users better understand who is trying to influence them and why. Now, with one tap, you’ll be able to see not only information about the ad, but also information that Facebook has verified, such as whether the advertiser used her EIN or FEC identification number. This allows people to confidently assess the legitimacy of an organization and quickly raise questions or concerns if they see something unusual.
Update on US social issues
It also updates the list of U.S. social issues to a list of 10 categories rather than 20 individual subject areas. As we pointed out, we were the first to announce Under this policy, this list is intended to be fluid to reflect public debate about social issues on and off Facebook, seeking to influence public opinion through advocacy, debate, and discussion. We also intentionally kept it wide as we refined it over time. Today’s update brings the US listings to match: problem list In countries that have recently held elections. The move from 20 subjects to 10 categories does not mean that the approval process will become less restrictive. We will continue to cover a variety of topics within the 10 categories referenced. For example, in the Civil and Social Rights category, we continue to actively detect and review ads on topics such as religious freedom, LGBTQ rights, and women’s rights.
More examples are available. Help center.
We also improved our execution based on your feedback. For example, if an ad discusses, debates, or defends environmental issues, or simply encourages people to recycle or highlights sustainable products, these additional steps may not be necessary in order to run. there is no. However, if your ad goes further and advocates for or against a law, ballot initiative, etc., authorization requirements still apply. As mentioned earlier, categories are evolving, so you may narrow your policies in some areas but expand them in others.
These efforts to improve our policies also apply to regions outside of the United States with applicable categories.
I’m looking forward to
Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more information about our efforts to make elections more secure and more transparent about the ads and content people see on Facebook. These updates include:
- Further enhancements to the advertising library, including making it easier to track and compare spending for U.S. presidential candidates
- Expanding our policy to prohibit ads that explicitly prevent Americans from voting, a commitment we made as part of a recent civil rights audit ( Click here for page 20)
- Require national candidates or elected officials to read all pages Approve page publicationThis requires page administrators to turn on two-factor authentication and verify their primary country location. This allows us to verify that these pages are using real accounts and are located in the United States.
- Publish more information about your Page, such as the business or organization behind it
We know we cannot tackle these challenges alone.That’s why we call for sensible regulation and work directly with governments, oversight bodies and regulators.
Our efforts to protect elections are ongoing and not perfect, but we can help make it harder for advertisers to see who is behind their ads and give people more transparency. can. We will continue to share the latest information as we take steps to protect people in the lead-up to the 2020 U.S. election and beyond.