The social network is letting some political ads slip through without the required verification, while blocking promotional posts by news organizations, which are pushing back.
by Jeremy B. Merrill and Ariana Tobin
One ad
couldn’t have been more obviously political. Targeted to people aged 18
and older, it urged them to “vote YES” on June 5 on a ballot
proposition to issue bonds for schools in a district near San Francisco.
Yet it showed up in users’ news feeds without the “paid for by”
disclaimer required for political ads under Facebook’s new policy
designed to prevent a repeat of Russian meddling in the 2016
presidential election. Nor does it appear, as it should, in Facebook’s
new archive of political ads.
The other ad was from The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit news outlet, promoting one of its articles
about financial aid for college students. Yet Facebook’s screening
system flagged it as political. For the ad to run, The Hechinger Report
would have to undergo the multi-step authorization and authentication
process of submitting Social Security numbers and identification that
Facebook now requires for anyone running “electoral ads” or “issue ads.”
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Source: ProPublica
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