Facebook launched its ad transparency tools in the US last May and stretched them to the UK in November 2018 and shortly extended them to India as well in December 2018.
This year in March, the European Union got their hands on the tools followed by Canada and Australia.
And now Facebook is all set to launch its ad transparency tools to 140 new countries as more smaller countries are holding the election.
Company's product manager, Sarah Schiff said that the elections are occurring all around the globe, and some are happening with very quick notice. To accomplish the transparency from advertisers, Facebook is devoted to require permissions and disclaimers for the social problems or political advertisements in more areas all over the world, she also informed that the initiative starts with Canada, Singapore, Argentina and Ukraine.
The rules of Facebook's ad transparency tools are as same as they were when launched in previous countries. Advertisers who are willing to run political ad campaigns have to through Facebook's authorization process.
They have to verify their identity, country and also the financial resource of running the ad.
The authorization rule will remain the same in countries where the tools previously working, and users who were previously authorized won't be required to repeat the process.
The company will save the data of these types of advertisements in the Ad Library for seven years, where more data will be accessible for the user without having a Facebook account.
The data will include a range of impressions and demographics, ads views and also spends on advertisements.
Facebook’s Ad Library API is also launched all over the world so that journalists, regulators and other users can investigate advertisements and help hold promoters and Facebook answerable.
Schiff said that the company would keep working with civil associations, governments and electoral bodies to secure the authenticity of elections globally.
Mozilla, which operates the Firefox browser, said that Facebook's ad transparency tools only fulfill two guidelines by experts out of five.
Mozilla's VP of Advocacy, Ashley Boyd, described this act of Facebook as outrageous. He said that It is shocking that Facebook will install a tool, which independent researchers found defective.
Mozilla gave failing grade to the version of the tool which was released earlier this year for the EU elections.
For example, one of the five requirements requires an open ad API to give the content of the ad and data about targeted criteria.
But according to the Mozilla report, Facebook's API doesn't provide this sort of information.
Furthermore, this API doesn't provide any engagement data, which means researchers cannot see how users interacted with an advertisement.
Ashley Boyd said that this launch is just PR exercise by Facebook as there is no reason to assume that this tool can help political leaders and researchers trying to understand the reach and influence of fake news and misinformation on governments.
This year in March, the European Union got their hands on the tools followed by Canada and Australia.
And now Facebook is all set to launch its ad transparency tools to 140 new countries as more smaller countries are holding the election.
Company's product manager, Sarah Schiff said that the elections are occurring all around the globe, and some are happening with very quick notice. To accomplish the transparency from advertisers, Facebook is devoted to require permissions and disclaimers for the social problems or political advertisements in more areas all over the world, she also informed that the initiative starts with Canada, Singapore, Argentina and Ukraine.
The rules of Facebook's ad transparency tools are as same as they were when launched in previous countries. Advertisers who are willing to run political ad campaigns have to through Facebook's authorization process.
They have to verify their identity, country and also the financial resource of running the ad.
The authorization rule will remain the same in countries where the tools previously working, and users who were previously authorized won't be required to repeat the process.
The company will save the data of these types of advertisements in the Ad Library for seven years, where more data will be accessible for the user without having a Facebook account.
- Also read: Facebook's Journey From Being a Social Media App to Having a Dedicated News Tab for Publishers
The data will include a range of impressions and demographics, ads views and also spends on advertisements.
Facebook’s Ad Library API is also launched all over the world so that journalists, regulators and other users can investigate advertisements and help hold promoters and Facebook answerable.
Schiff said that the company would keep working with civil associations, governments and electoral bodies to secure the authenticity of elections globally.
Mozilla Says Facebook's Ad Transparency Tool Is a Failure
According to a non-profit organisation Mozilla, Facebook's ad transparency APIs is flawed.Mozilla, which operates the Firefox browser, said that Facebook's ad transparency tools only fulfill two guidelines by experts out of five.
Mozilla's VP of Advocacy, Ashley Boyd, described this act of Facebook as outrageous. He said that It is shocking that Facebook will install a tool, which independent researchers found defective.
Mozilla gave failing grade to the version of the tool which was released earlier this year for the EU elections.
For example, one of the five requirements requires an open ad API to give the content of the ad and data about targeted criteria.
But according to the Mozilla report, Facebook's API doesn't provide this sort of information.
- Also read: Majority of the Americans are in favor of Regulating Altered Videos and Images on Internet [Survey]
Furthermore, this API doesn't provide any engagement data, which means researchers cannot see how users interacted with an advertisement.
Ashley Boyd said that this launch is just PR exercise by Facebook as there is no reason to assume that this tool can help political leaders and researchers trying to understand the reach and influence of fake news and misinformation on governments.
