Facebook to flash paid for by on political ads

​New Delhi: Aiming to bring more transparency to ads related to politics in India ahead of the general elections, Facebook on Thursday launched a tool that will allow its users to know the people behind the political ad on its platform and how much they spent for it. A 'disclaimer' offering details about those responsible for running the ad will be featured.

"Starting today (Thursday), people will begin to see political ads with 'Published by' or 'Paid for by' disclaimers specified by advertisers. This will give people more information about who is responsible for the ads they see," Shivnath Thukral, Public Policy Director, India and South Asia at Facebook said.  People will also be able to access a 'searchable ad library' to find out more about ads related to politics, including range of impressions, spends and demographics of who viewed the ad. 

This month, Facebook will also start showing the primary country location of the people who manage pages running or paying for political ads in India. The social media giant said the enforcement of the new features and the political ads policy begins February 21, and from then only advertisers who have completed authorisations and made stipulated disclosures will be allowed to run political ads in India. 

With ensuing general elections, the Indian government had warned social media platforms of strong action if any attempt was made to influence the country's electoral process through undesirable means. 

The government is also proposing to amend IT rules, wherein social media, online platforms and messaging apps will be made more accountable and be mandated to deploy tools to identify and curb unlawful content as well as follow stricter due diligence practices.  Over the last few months, social media players like Facebook, Twitter, and Google have promised to infuse more transparency into political advertisements on their platform and have since announced a slew of measures as part of election integrity efforts. Facebook - which has over 200 million users in India - said it is committed to create a new standard of transparency and authenticity for political advertising on its platform and Instagram.