Inundated with deceptive political ads on Facebook? That sounds like a you problem.
The social network—standing firm on its policy that politicians are “exempt” from fact checking—encourages users to simply opt out of seeing certain promos.
Announced on Thursday, a change to Facebook’s political ad system aims to “expand transparency” and “give more controls to people.”
“We have chosen not to limit targeting of these ads,” Rob Leathern, director of product management, wrote in a blog announcement. “We considered doing so, but through extensive outreach and consultations we heard about the importance of these tools for reaching key audiences.”
Starting this summer—mere months before the 2020 U.S. presidential election—Facebook will roll out the ability to search for ads with exact phrases, group similar ads, and filter content “to better analyze results.”
“This will allow for more efficient and effective research for voters, academics, or journalists using these features,” Leathern explained.
Except, instead of filtering out falsehoods promoted by party members, it boosts confirmation bias and spreads misinformation without verification.
“We have based [our policies] on the principle that people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and all,” Leathern said. “And that what they say should be scrutinized and debated in public.
“This does not mean that politicians can say whatever they like in advertisements on Facebook,” he added.
Which is to say: hate speech, harmful content, and messages designed to intimidate or stop people from exercising their right to vote are prohibited, but misleading adverts are A-OK.
“We recognize this is an issue that has provoked much public discussion—including much criticism of Facebook’s position,” according to Leathern. “We are not deaf to that and will continue to work with regulators and policy makers in our ongoing efforts to help protect elections.
“We are grateful to everyone who has engaged with us over the past several months,” he continued. “With these changes, we believe we offer unprecedented transparency and control for political ads, and look forward to continuing the discussions and updates over the next year.”
This is in keeping with Facebook’s newsworthiness exemption, introduced in 2016, which allows posts that break community standards “if we believe the public interest in seeing it outweighs the risk of harm,” VP of global affairs and communications Nick Clegg said last year.
More on Geek.com:
- Facebook Bans ‘Misleading’ Deepfakes
- Instagram Automatically Labels, Hides Fake News
- Facebook Viewpoints App Pays You To Take Surveys
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