By Emily Glazer
In a break with other tech companies, Facebook Inc. said it
wouldn't limit how political ads are targeted to potential voters,
but would instead give users tools to see fewer of those ads on its
platforms.
The move by Facebook, which says a private company shouldn't
decide how campaigns are able to reach potential voters, is at odds
with how other tech firms are approaching political ads leading up
to the 2020 election.
The social-media giant also announced changes it says will boost
transparency about how political ads are shared.
The company based its policy "on the principle that people
should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and
all, and that what they say should be scrutinized and debated in
public," according to a memo from Rob Leathern, Facebook's director
of product management. "This does not mean that politicians can say
whatever they like in advertisements on Facebook."
The memo said all Facebook users have to follow its community
standards, which ban hate speech, harmful content and content
designed to intimidate voters or stop them from exercising their
right to vote.
Facebook and other technology companies have faced increasing
pressure to limit the spread of misleading or false information.
Facebook took a different approach in its decision to increase
transparency and give users more control over what they see
compared with moves by Twitter Inc. and Alphabet Inc.'s Google to
largely block or limit targeting of political ads,
respectively.
Facebook acknowledged it considered limiting political-ad
targeting but ultimately chose not to do so. The company said it
consulted with a number of nonprofits, political groups and
campaigns--both Democrat and Republican--who, it said, consider
Facebook's platforms key ways to reach audiences.
"Ultimately, we don't think decisions about political ads should
be made by private companies, which is why we are arguing for
regulation that would apply across the industry," Mr. Leathern
said.
The announcement comes two days after the New York Times
reported on an internal post from Facebook executive Andrew
Bosworth, in which he said he believed the company played a central
role in the 2016 presidential election.
"So was Facebook responsible for Donald Trump getting elected? I
think the answer is yes, but not for the reasons anyone thinks. He
didn't get elected because of Russia or misinformation or Cambridge
Analytica. He got elected because he ran the single best digital ad
campaign I've ever seen from any advertiser. Period," Mr. Bosworth
wrote.
With less than a year until the 2020 U.S. election and roughly
$3 billion expected to be spent on digital political advertising, a
lack of uniform rules for the ads has led to confusion about
exactly what is allowed on the platforms, how intensely new
policies will be enforced and whether advertising strategies and
budgets will need to change further.
Political advertising will continue to increase with the first
Democratic presidential nominating contest in Iowa on Feb. 3.
Watchdogs including lawmakers and advocacy groups have called
for greater oversight of political advertising following
revelations that Russian entities purchased digital ads designed to
influence the 2016 presidential election.
Google earlier this week launched its new policy globally that
no longer allows advertisers to target political messages based on
users' interests inferred from their browsing or search histories,
among other changes. Twitter stopped accepting most political ads
in November. Facebook, meanwhile, in September said it would no
longer fact-check certain ads.
Facebook said its new control feature for political ads will
roll out in the U.S. early this summer on Facebook and Instagram.
It will later expand to other locations.
The company said seeing fewer political and social-issue ads was
a common request from users.
The expanded transparency features, which give users more
control over how advertisers reach them, will launch in the first
quarter of 2020. Those will apply to all countries where there is a
"paid for by" disclaimer on ads.
Facebook said while its users have been able to hide all ads
from a specific advertiser in their ad preferences, they will soon
be able to stop seeing ads based on how an advertiser constructed
its list of targeted users. In addition, users will be able to opt
in to see messages that are targeted to a group that doesn't
include them.
For example, Facebook said, if a campaign decided to stop
serving certain users fundraising ads because it deemed them
unlikely to donate, those users could choose to continue seeing
such ads.
The Wall Street Journal previously reported Facebook was
weighing steps to increase the minimum number of people who can be
targeted in political ads on its platform from 100 to a few
thousand, among other changes. The potential moves were being
considered as part of an effort to make it harder for advertisers
to microtarget, which has been criticized for enabling political
actors to single out groups for misleading or false ads that aren't
seen by the broader public.
Facebook said Thursday that its data showed more than 85% of ad
spending from U.S. presidential candidates is for ad campaigns
targeted to audiences estimated at more than 250,000 people.
"We recognize this is an issue that has provoked much public
debate--including much criticism of Facebook's position," Mr.
Leathern said. "We are not deaf to that and will continue to work
with regulators and policy makers in our ongoing efforts to help
protect elections."
Write to Emily Glazer at emily.glazer@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
January 09, 2020 06:14 ET (11:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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