Facebook wants to increase its transparency in election campaigns ahead of the US presidential election in 2020. "People should know who is trying to influence their choices, and advertisers should not be able to disguise who pays for the ads," the company writes in its US blog.
As of mid-September, stricter rules will be in place for the authorization process for US recruitment advertisers. In the future, they would have to divulge more information about their organization to be displayed as a "confirmed organization," they say. In addition to a US postal address, telephone number, business e-mail address and a matching website, are either necessary
- a government website with the domain ending .gov or .mil,
- a tax identification number of the organization
- or the identification number of the Federal Election Commission.
Smaller organizations or individual politicians who can not afford to do so may switch to election campaigns if they provide a verifiable address and contact information. Only this will not be provided with the suffix "confirmed organization".
Alternatively, it is sufficient to specify the name of the administrator of the respective Facebook page in accordance with their identity document - in the disclaimer of the election campaign, however, then may not be the name of the advertising organization.
If advertisers do not follow the new rules by mid-October, their ads on Facebook and Instagram would be stopped, Facebook said.
Alleged election campaign on behalf of the IS
One of the reasons for the tightening of the rules is that advertisers have in some cases tried to publish misleading disclaimers with the words "paid by" on their advertisements. Some of the organizations listed there have never existed - which "Vice" journalists had demonstrated by putting putative referrals on Facebook on behalf of US Vice President Mike Pence and the so-called Islamic State.
With the tightening would make it harder for advertisers to hide who is hiding behind the advertising, said Facebook now.
In Germany too, persons or organizations who advertise election campaigns must create a disclaimer, which can be seen on the respective ad. According to the company, this "may not contain the phrase 'paid by', since this information is already being used by Facebook itself.