Sundar Pichai-headed Google vows to bring more transparency in political advertisements ahead of general elections

After Twitter, Google has vowed to bring more transparency in political vertisements on its platform ahe of general elections in country, saying it will provide details of vertisers as well as money spent on such s.

In a statement, Google said its updated election s policy for India requires vertisers seeking to run poll s to provide a ''pre-certificate'' issued by Election Commission of India (ECI) or anyone authorised by ECI, for every y wish to run.

Also, Google will verify identity of vertisers before ir election s run on its platforms.

"To bring more transparency to online election s, Google will introduce an India-specific Political vertising Transparency Report and searchable Political s Library. se will provide comprehensive information about who is purchasing election s on Google platforms and how much money is being spent," it said in statement.

vertiser verification process will begin on February 14, while India Political s Transparency Report and s Library will go live in March 2019, it said.

With general elections slated to be held in coming months, government h warned social media platforms of strong action if any attempt was me to influence country's electoral process through undesirable means.

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It has recently also proposed to amend IT rules, wherein social media, online platforms and messaging apps will be required to deploy tools to "identify" and curb unlawful content as well as follow stricter due diligence practices.

Earlier this month, Twitter h stated it will provide a new dashboard showing expenditures by political parties on vertisements its platform. vertising dashboard will provide information on spending by entities for poll-related vertisements.

In December, Facebook h said it will make it compulsory for vertisers to disclose ir identity and location before any political vertisement material can be run on popular social media platform and Instagram. Facebook h said it will also start showing a disclaimer on all political vertisements by providing details of those placing vertisements.

In its statement, Google said its latest initiative is aimed at bringing "openness to election vertising online and enabling voters to get election-related information y need".

"In 2019, over 850 million Indians are expected to cast ir vote to elect country's next government. We''re thinking hard about elections and how we continue to support democratic processes in India and around world," Chetan Krishnaswamy, Director - Public Policy, Google India said.

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Mr Krishnaswamy ded: "In line with this, we are bringing more transparency to election vertising online, and surfacing relevant information to help people better navigate electoral process."

Google has said that in build-up to elections, people need useful and relevant information to help m navigate electoral process and that for upcoming polls, it will make electoral information from Election Commission of India and or authoritative sources easily discoverable on Google Search.