Facebook may finally take some action on political ads

San Francisco, Nov 22 (IANS) Sense seems to be prevailing at Facebook and the social networking giant is willing to make some changes in its political ad policies to stop misinformation on its platform during elections.

Facebook is mulling a ban on political ads that target small audiences or microtargeted ads.

It would increase the minimum target size for a political ad from 100 people to a “few thousand,” according to a Wall Street Journal report.

Facebook has reportedly asked Democrat and Republican ad buyers for inputs.

A company spokesperson said Facebook was “looking at different ways [it] might refine” its viewpoint on allowing political ads.

Tech giants are under pressure to take action on the spread of misinformation via political ads. Facebook recently allowed US President Donald Trump’s campaign office to post a fake ad about Democrat presidential hopeful Joe Biden on its platform.

Google has announced new limits on political advertisers globally from micro-targeting users via election ads based on their political affiliation.

“We’ve never allowed granular microtargeting of political ads on our platforms. In many countries, the targeting of political advertising is regulated and we comply with those laws,” it said.

Even Snapchat has said it fact-checks all political ads and does not allow misinformation to sneak through its platform. Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said the company subjects all advertising to review, including political advertising.

Twitter on November 15 officially banned all kinds of political ads from its platform. No political content will be promoted from candidates, parties, governments or officials, public accounts committees (PACs) and certain political non-profit groups, said the micro-blogging platform.