Meta, the parent company of Facebook, has recently detailed new policies regarding political advertising. These policies include a requirement for advertisers to disclose when they use artificial intelligence to modify images and videos in certain political content, according to a report by CNBC. Meta Political Advertising AI Usage .
Nick Clegg, Meta’s Head of Global Affairs, described these new advertising policies in a blog post. He stated that they are largely consistent with how the social media giant has traditionally handled advertising rules during past election campaigns.
However, the upcoming election season will see a significant increase in the use of AI technologies by advertisers to create computer-generated visuals and texts.
Earlier in November, Clegg announced that starting next year, Meta would require advertisers to disclose whether they used AI or related digital editing technologies “to create or alter an ad about a political or social issue in certain cases”.
This applies to ads that contain a realistically generated or altered image or video, or sound of a real person saying or doing something they did not actually say or do. It also applies if an ad depicts a realistically looking non-existent person or event, alters footage of a real event, or depicts an event that appears real and claims to have occurred but did not, whether in a photo, video, or audio recording.
Meta has faced criticism, particularly during the 2016 U.S. presidential elections, for failing to curb the spread of misinformation across its applications, including Facebook and Instagram.
In 2019, Meta allowed a digitally altered video of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, which made her appear to slur her words, to remain on its site, even though the video was not an ad.
The rise of AI as a tool for creating misleading advertisements presents a new challenge for the social media giant, which has laid off a significant number of its trust and safety team as part of cost-cutting efforts this year.
Additionally, Meta will also block new political, electoral, and social issue ads during the last week of the U.S. elections, a policy Clegg said aligns with previous years. These restrictions will be lifted the day after the elections.
For more information on these updates, visit dzwatch.net , Meta Political Advertising AI Usage.
