Political advertisers must identify themselves on Facebook

Facebook has announced new requirements for advertisers. For example, political advertisers must identify themselves with the social network. An investigation into political influence through Facebook ads in the US is underway.

Facebook reports that the requirement will come into effect before the US federal election. After that, the company plans to expand the requirement to other countries. Political ads get a listing that tells users who paid for them. They also gain insight into why they have seen a specific ad, just like with other ads. There will also be an archive in which advertisements and their results will be kept and it will be clear per page which advertisements it uses.

As part of the identification requirement, advertisers must make it clear who they are and where they come from. Facebook says it wants to track advertisers who don’t do this using machine learning. According to Recode, the social network must answer to two investigative committees of the US Congress on November 1. That investigation focuses on possible influencing of the American elections through Facebook advertisements paid from Russia.

Twitter and Google must also be held accountable. Twitter announced on Thursday that it will no longer allow ads from Russia Today and Sputnik over influence attempts during the presidential election.