Facebook announces tighter rules on political advertisement before the expected UK general election.
The company extends advertising checks in order to reduce the impact of political advertisement on election results.
Legality of Political Advertisements
Advertisers target individuals by sending them tailored messages.
These tailored messages influence voting decisions.
Furthermore, Facebook does not have a system to test the accuracy of what is included in political advertisements.
The lack of an accuracy test raises the risk of spreading fake news to influence public opinion.
The UK has clear rules on news and political advertisements during election campaigns.
However, popularity of Facebook challenges these rules by creating a legal gap.
While the UK laws on political advertisement are strict, these laws do not apply to social media platforms.
The legal gap between UK legislation and social media raises concerns about the outcome of the upcoming UK general election.
The company hopes that newly introduced change in rules will help close this legal gap.
Facebook Verification System
Facebook created a verification system amid allegations that Facebook facilitated a Russian interference in the US presidential election campaign.
Donald Trump faced allegations that he received help from Facebook to collude with the Russian government.
Consequently, Facebook decided to require political advertisers to go through a verification process to prove their identity and residence.
This verification process was insufficient as it did not provide a precise definition for political advertisement.
The introduced change requires anyone who runs a social or political advertisement in the UK to go through this verification process.
As a result, individuals running advertisements about social issues such as immigration, health and the environment will need to be verified.
The change widens the scope of what constitutes political advertisement.
The newly introduced rule will apply starting next week.
Those who run social or political advertisements in the UK will have to go through a much stricter process of verification.
