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Facebook Boosts Ad Transparency Prior to 2019 Indian General Elections
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Facebook stated advertisers in India who wish to run political advertisements on the social networking platform have to certify their identity and location in order to prevent abuse of the system prior to upcoming general elections next year.

In a CNBC report, Facebook announced that the new transparency measures were made to defend any potential foreign interference as the world's biggest democracy comes close to polls in 2019 for its general elections.

Advertisers have to submit their proof of identity and location using their devices if they seek to run election-related ads, especially those that are related to Indian politics. Facebook confirmed that the confirmation process may take a few weeks before being authenticated and approved.

“It’s important that people know more about the ads they see — especially those that reference political figures, political parties, elections, and legislation. That’s why we’re making big changes to the way we manage these ads on Facebook and Instagram,” the social media firm said.

It added that authorizing advertisers and making advertisements more transparent for users can help in strengthening the defense against offshore interference in India's elections. The said measures were already launched in Brazil, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Facebook has been under fire following the Cambridge Analytica scandal that hurt the social media company's image after the large-scale data breach.

The London-based elections took advantage of Facebook to accumulate data of over 50 million users without their consent. Records from the Federal Election Commission, as cited by Reuters, state US President Donald Trump's campaign paid Cambridge Analytica more than $6.2 million to aid in targeting voters by means of advertisements on Facebook.

Meanwhile, Google stated that it plans to set up its own set of security measures in ensuring greater transparency on ads prior to Indian elections. Google India’s director of trust and safety, Sunita Mohanty said they are planning to apply the procedures the company did during the US midterm elections—running weekly reports that showed all the ads that appeared on Google, who paid for them, and the party it covered—for India's general elections.

“There’s still time for India’s general elections, but we are gearing up for it and we have put in place a global framework for it,” Mohanty said.

출처: http://www.speconomy.com/news/articleView.html?idxno=131975