Social Media giant Facebook, which is still bearing the brunt of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and lax privacy policies, aims to make amends with a political transparency tool. The new tool lets users know the party and their spending on a particular political ad on its platform. This additional layer of open policy comes ahead of the General Elections in India.
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This new update would cover ads instigating political propaganda. Political figures, political parties, elections and ads that advocate for or against the legislation all come under its purview. Any such advert would come with “Published by” or “Paid for by” disclaimers as defined by the advertisers while buying the online ad space. This would indicate the users about the sponsors of the ad hovering on their timeline.
Facebook’s new policy will come into effect from 21 February. “We will remove political ads running without a disclaimer in News Feed and will place them in the Ads Library.” the company affirms.
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Facebook would also inform its users when someone uploads their contact details, along with who did it and who shared it. This feature dubbed as ‘Custom Audiences’ will roll out starting February 28.
The internet hubs which are facing flak for their privacy policies need to raise the walls. These tools and updates would be baby steps in the right direction.
