By the end of this month, anyone running ads on Facebook or Instagram about politics in Iraq will have to go through an authorisation process.
Facebook is rolling out new tools and policies to provide greater transparency and controls on electoral and political ads in Iraq, ahead of planned parliamentary elections on October 10.
By the end of this month, anyone running ads on Facebook or Instagram about political figures, political parties or election-related campaigns in Iraq will have to go through an ad authorisation process, the company said on Tuesday.
Starting on August 25, anyone running ads on Facebook or Instagram about political figures, political parties, any election or “Get out the vote” campaigns in Iraq will have to go through an ad authorisation process to prove who they are by verifying their identity with a government-issued photo ID from Iraq.
This applies to any person creating, modifying, publishing, or managing these ads. Ads about elections and politics will only be permitted from advertisers who are authorised as being located within the country.
Advertisers will also be required to label ads about elections and politics in Iraq with a “Paid for by” disclaimer, so that anyone who views the ad can see the individual or organisation that is responsible for the ad.
Ads about elections and politics in Iraq will also be archived in Facebook’s Ad Library so that everyone can see what ads are running, how much was spent, and a breakdown of reach and demographics. This fully searchable archive will store these ads for seven years.
Available in more than 195 countries, ads transparency is one of many ways Facebook is working to help protect elections integrity around the world.
Commenting on the solution, Facebook’s Public Policy Manager for the Levant, Tara Fischbach, said: “We believe that more transparency leads to increased accountability and responsibility for both Facebook and advertisers. Our work to help protect elections is never done, but changes like these continue to move us in the right direction.”
Alongside the introduction of ads transparency, a feature that allows people to have more control over the ads they see on Facebook and Instagram will also be made available in Iraq. People will be given the choice to see fewer electoral and political ads with disclaimers on their feeds.
To enable the electoral and political ads controls, users can click on “ad preferences” and then “ad topics”. Under this, they will see a list of topics and must click “see fewer”.
People can turn off electoral and political ads running with disclaimers by clicking on the top of these ads in their feed.
