Facebook is often held responsible for playing a crucial role in politics. Now, with the upcoming elections, Facebook is undoubtedly going to be under a microscope for strict scrutiny.
So, to help the company appear impartial and unbiased this time around, Facebook has added some new tools in the Ad Library to track the total political spend and to provide more transparency about each adverting campaign, their funds, their supporting groups, etc. by the 'ad' options provided by Facebook.
Director of Product Management, Rob Leathern has explained that these new tools are specially designed to help researchers and media journalists to understand and demonstrate the ad spend by politicians on Facebook.
For this purpose, first of all, there is going to be a shared advertiser disclaimer in each political ad listing. It will show all the advertisers who have run ads and have paid for those ads with a disclaimer also used by some other politician. This will give an idea to the users about which organizations are supporting which ad listings and politicians. Also, this will give some insight into the way these political campaigns and these candidates get funded.
Secondly, with the help of the new presidential spend tracker, now anyone can compare how much the advertisers are spending on ads about politics, elections, or other social causes on Facebook and across the services provided by Facebook.
All the notable elected officials and public figures running for President and Vice President are listed in the spending tracker, but to appear in this tracker, the candidates must have a Facebook Page.
Another tool that Facebook has recently added is a new embeddable widget for bloggers. With the help of this widget, they can share a real-time Facebook ad spending tracker for the presidential candidates.
These tools may not add a lot to the Ad Library, but still, they will help in tracking the ad spend throughout the election campaign more efficiently and more precisely. It will also be good for Facebook’s reputation because of the uproar that occurred because of Facebook in the previous elections. So, now, it seems that Facebook has a chance to redeem itself in the eyes of the public. Let us see how it all turns out for Facebook in the end.
Read next: Now you can follow a Page on Facebook on your own terms as the social media app is bringing some new settings
So, to help the company appear impartial and unbiased this time around, Facebook has added some new tools in the Ad Library to track the total political spend and to provide more transparency about each adverting campaign, their funds, their supporting groups, etc. by the 'ad' options provided by Facebook.
Director of Product Management, Rob Leathern has explained that these new tools are specially designed to help researchers and media journalists to understand and demonstrate the ad spend by politicians on Facebook.
For this purpose, first of all, there is going to be a shared advertiser disclaimer in each political ad listing. It will show all the advertisers who have run ads and have paid for those ads with a disclaimer also used by some other politician. This will give an idea to the users about which organizations are supporting which ad listings and politicians. Also, this will give some insight into the way these political campaigns and these candidates get funded.
Secondly, with the help of the new presidential spend tracker, now anyone can compare how much the advertisers are spending on ads about politics, elections, or other social causes on Facebook and across the services provided by Facebook.
All the notable elected officials and public figures running for President and Vice President are listed in the spending tracker, but to appear in this tracker, the candidates must have a Facebook Page.
Another tool that Facebook has recently added is a new embeddable widget for bloggers. With the help of this widget, they can share a real-time Facebook ad spending tracker for the presidential candidates.
You’ll also be able to place the tracker on your site or in articles with a new widget, as per this video (4/4) pic.twitter.com/JwKesLypXy— Rob Leathern (@robleathern) August 17, 2020
These tools may not add a lot to the Ad Library, but still, they will help in tracking the ad spend throughout the election campaign more efficiently and more precisely. It will also be good for Facebook’s reputation because of the uproar that occurred because of Facebook in the previous elections. So, now, it seems that Facebook has a chance to redeem itself in the eyes of the public. Let us see how it all turns out for Facebook in the end.
Read next: Now you can follow a Page on Facebook on your own terms as the social media app is bringing some new settings
