Facebook has announced that it will soon start labeling political ads on its newsfeed, adding a clear message to the top of any post relating to political topics or issues. Only verified advertisers will be allowed to post political ads, and the label will disclose who paid for them.
This feature will come to the US “this Spring” and roll out worldwide afterward.
Here’s how the Political Ad label and political ad archive will work for you. pic.twitter.com/m16Zg4yOta
— Facebook (@facebook) April 6, 2018
Whatever your political views, its clear that being told who benefits from each advert will help users better understand the value of posts and whether or not they’re worth disregarding. Hopefully, it will make it more obvious that propaganda posts are not necessarily objective and should be read with that in mind.
As explained by Rob Leathern, a Product Director from the Facebook ads team: “We believe people should be able to easily understand why they’re seeing ads, who paid for them, and what other ads that advertiser is running.”
This is just one improvement Facebook is making to its service in the wake of recent revelations, as it hopes to lessen the impact of paid ads and fake news in the build-up to the US midterm elections later this year. It remains to be seen what other steps will be taken, but we’d guess Facebook has more up its sleeve.