Facebook is making changes to certain policies regarding social issues ads. Perhaps driven in response to multiple strong feedback, Facebook is allegedly taking a step back to reduce the stringency of its social issues qualifiers. This ensures that more ads can now run without including the ‘paid for by’ disclaimer notice.

For additional context, and as a quick recap, in line with the 2016 US presidential election, Facebook put in place a range of new restrictions and parameters regarding political and issues-based ads. Facebook enacted such to provide more transparency as to who’s funding and promoting pushes designed to influence public opinion. One key element with regards to this is that all advertisers who wish to run political and/or issues-based ads must be ‘verified’.

Meta Ceo Mark Zucekrgebrg explains:

“To get verified, advertisers will need to confirm their identity and location. Any advertiser who doesn’t pass will be prohibited from running political or issue ads. We will also label them and advertisers will have to show you who paid for them.”

Essentially, what this means is that any Facebook ad that relates to any social issue will require both a verification and a ‘paid for by’ disclaimer, which users can then tap to learn more whoever it is behind these.

However, as Facebook has recently pointed out:

“Because the primary purpose of some of these ads is not to engage in advocacy, we’re changing the way we approach a subset of them. Advertisers will no longer be required to complete the authorization process or include a “Paid for by” disclaimer to run if we determine an ad includes the below three criteria:

  1. A product or service is prominently shown in use or named or referenced in the ad;

  2. The primary purpose of the ad is to sell a product or promote a service, even if the ad content includes advocacy for a social issue; and

  3. The ad content contains a call-to-action to purchase or use the product or service.”

So, if an ad relates to a political or social issue, but is explicitly selling something instead of linking back to an advocacy or cause, it won’t be sanctioned.

Facebook event provided these two specific examples:

“No longer a social issue ad: “Our new show, “Our Only Future,” on how we can tackle climate change will premiere next month in your city. Purchase your early-bird tickets now for €10.”

And

“Social issue ad: “Our leather patches just arrived. Each patch is embroidered with ‘Support refugees.’ Shop now!”

For the second one, while it does promote a product, it also clearly states social issue advocacy messaging, meaning that it’ll need a disclaimer.

The Wrap

There’s likely to be some confusion during the initial stages of these new policies, but the thing is that Facebook wants to make it easier for brands to run more ads by virtue of less stringent requirements. At best, while it sounds empowering, it’s also rather spotty and quite prone to certain forms of misuse. It’ll be up to Facebook’s ads teams to make sure that everything is running smoothly and is in check.

It’s all good if Facebook is after to build more transparency, but for something so broad, it’s definitely going to encounter its fair share of criticism and perhaps even controversy. The best thing to do now is wait and see how it performs.

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Sources

https://bit.ly/3xej0zS