Advertising News South Africa

Facebook announces ad transparency expansion

Facebook has announced the expansion of its tools and policies. Starting 29 June, it will launch enforcements on advertisements about elections or politics in Zambia and South Africa.

As a result, anyone running advertisements about political figures, political parties, the election or ‘Get out the vote’ campaigns must go through the ad authorisation process. This is done by verifying their identity with a government-issued photo ID and confirming their location in those countries. Advertisers are required to provide more information about the person or organisation responsible for the ad to place ‘Paid for by’ disclaimers on these ads. This includes any person creating, modifying, publishing or pausing ads that reference ads about elections or politics. Ads will also be entered into Facebook’s ad library for seven years.

Earlier this year, Facebook announced a new control feature that allows people to have more control over the ads they see on Facebook. This feature gives people a choice to see fewer electoral and political ads with ‘Paid for by’ disclaimers in Zambia or South Africa.

To enable the electoral and political ads controls, people can adjust their ad topic preferences:

  • Visit 'Ad Preferences' then click 'Ad Topics'.
  • Under the list of Ad Topics, you’ll see a list of topics including 'Social Issues, Elections or Politics'.
  • Across from Social Issues, Elections or Politics, click ‘See Fewer’.

People can only turn off electoral and political ads with disclaimers by clicking on the top of these ads in their feed.

Nomonde Gongxeka-Seopa, Facebook’s head of public policy, Southern Africa, said,“We believe that more transparency leads to increased accountability and responsibility for both Facebook and advertisers, which is good for people and businesses alike. Political ads play an important role in every election. Our work to help protect elections is never done, but we believe changes like these continue to move us in the right direction.”

For more details on how to get authorized to run social issues, electoral and political ads, go here.

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