Facebook assures transparency with political ads ahead of 2019 Indian general election

Ahead of 2019 Indian general election, social media giant Facebook said it will soon come up with transparency tools for electoral ads in India. According to Facebook, it will help the company prevent foreign interference, in addition to making political advertising on Facebook more transparent.

Facebook will also create a publicly accessible search library of political advertisements for up to seven years including information such as advertisement's budget, campaign's reach and demographics such as age, gender and location.

Social networking giant Facebook is planning to establish two new regional operations centres to maintain election integrity. These regional operations centres will be located in Facebook's Dublin and Singapore offices.

Also Read | Mark Zuckerberg plans to merge WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook Messenger: Report

In addition to assuring transparency, Facebook apparently trying to curb fake news, hate speech and voter suppression.

"(Facebook) will work cross-functionally with our threat intelligence, data science, engineering, research, community operations, legal and other teams," explained Katie Harbath, Global Politics and Government Outreach Director at Facebook.

Facebook said it will continue expanding their third-party fact-checking program. Last month, Facebook announced that it will show disclaimer on all political ads in India by offering more information about who is placing the advertisement.

Also Read | "We don't sell people's data, even though it's often reported that we do," says Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg

"Now anyone who wants to run an ad in India related to politics will need to first confirm their identity and location, and give more details about who placed the ad," said Sarah Clark Schiff, Product Manager at Facebook.

Throughout 2018, Facebook was severely criticised for their role in the Cambridge Analytica data scandal influencing the 2016 US presidential election. Facebook was also scrutinised for being unable to address the suspicious involvement of Russians deep into its system.