Authorizing Ads with Political Content: Why Publishers Are Included

I want to clarify some misconceptions around our new political ads policy as it relates to news publishers and give a more detailed explanation on our approach.

First, some context. We are moving towards greater transparency around all advertising on Facebook and Instagram. Given that our challenges in the last U.S. election stemmed from political and issue advertising, that is the content we are labeling and archiving first. As we developed the authorization process, we recognized immediately that news content was different than political and issue advertising. In an effort to be collaborative around the treatment of ads on news content, we brought publishers in early for ideas on how best to approach labeling and transparency.

Based on their direct input, we landed on a simple “Paid for by xxx” label and a plan to create a differentiated space within our archive to separate news content from political and issue ads — one section reserved specifically for ads run by news organizations that include mentions of elections, candidates, and important issues. We believe this differentiated space addresses any concerns publishers may have about conflating news stories with advocacy.

Many publishers have welcomed this approach and welcomed our commitment to transparency around their ads. Some publishers have asked for an exemption from this new process. Removing an entire group of advertisers, in this case publishers, would go against our transparency efforts and the work we’re doing to shore up election integrity on Facebook. We don’t want to be in a position where a bad actor obfuscates its identity by claiming to be a news publisher, and what’s more, we know there can be editorial content from news organizations that takes political positions. For these reasons, we’re focused on the separate archive treatment, without exemptions.

Our product team is working to build out the differentiated archive now, and the new treatment should be in place within a matter of weeks. Given the urgency with the upcoming midterms, we chose to implement the new policy immediately. We believe the right solution will soon be in place. It’s worth noting that our commitment to transparency around electoral and issue ads applies to all organizations; not just news and advocacy, but to commercial enterprises and traditional businesses that engage in issue advertising as well. This new process was not put in place as criticism or judgment. It’s simply a tool that we hope promotes more informed consumption. We believe this is consistent with the media literacy efforts we know many publications already endorse.

We hope this sheds more light on why we believe these steps are so important.

June 26th Update: In the coming days we will launch the two sections of the Archive of Ads with Political Content, referenced here. Here are visual examples of what the differentiated archive section will look like, with one section reserved for Promoted News, and the other section for Ads With Political Content.