Meta requires political advertisers to disclose the use of AI
Meta spent years figuring out how to handle political ads on Facebook and Instagram. It put systems in place and developed policies for what types of political ads were and were not allowed on its platforms.
But that was before the rise of consumer artificial intelligence.
On Wednesday, Meta introduced a new policy to address the effects of AI on political advertising. The Silicon Valley company said that from next year, political advertisers around the world would have to disclose when they had used third-party AI software in ads about political or social issues to synthetically represent people and events.
Meta added that it would ban advertisers from using its own AI-enabled software to create ads about political or social issues, as well as ads related to housing, employment, credit, healthcare, pharmaceuticals or financial services. Those advertisers could use third-party AI tools like the image generators DALL-E and Midjourney, but with disclosures.
“We believe this approach will allow us to better understand potential risks and build the right safeguards for the use of generative AI in advertising related to potentially sensitive topics in regulated industries,” the company says. said.
Meta takes into account a wave of AI tools that the public has embraced in the past year. As consumers have flocked to ChatGPT, Google Bard, Midjourney and other “generative AI” products, major tech companies like Meta have had to rethink how to deal with a new era of manipulated or outright fake images, video and audio.
Political advertising has long been a controversial topic for Meta. In 2016, Facebook was criticized for a lack of oversight after Russians used the social network’s ads to sow discontent among Americans. Since then, Mark Zuckerberg, Meta’s founder and CEO, has spent billions of dollars suppressing misinformation and disinformation on the company’s platforms and hired independent contractors to closely monitor political ads passing through the system.
The company has also not shied away from allowing politicians to lie in advertisements on the platform, which Mr Zuckerberg has defended on grounds of freedom of speech and public debate. Meta has also shown reluctance to restrict the speech of elected officials. Nick Clegg, Meta’s president of global affairs, has called for regulatory advice on such issues rather than letting tech companies set the rules.
Those who post political ads on Meta currently must complete an authorization process and include a “paid for by” disclaimer in the ads, which are stored in the company’s public ad library for seven years so journalists and academics can study them.
When Meta’s new AI policy goes into effect next year, political campaigns and marketers will be asked to disclose whether they used AI tools to change the ads. If this is the case and the ad is accepted, the company will display it with the information that it was created with AI tools. Meta said it would not require advertisers to disclose changes that are “inconsequential or immaterial to the claim, assertion or issue,” such as photo retouching and image cropping.
Ads on political and social issues that appear to have used AI to alter images, video and audio but did not make this public will be rejected, the company said. Organizations that repeatedly attempt to submit such advertisements without making it public will be punished, the report added, without specifying what the penalties might be. The company has long had third-party fact-checking partners review, review and potentially remove ads designed to spread misinformation.
By banning advertisers from using the company’s proprietary AI-powered software to create ads about political or social issues, Meta can potentially avoid headaches or lawsuits related to its ad technology.
In 2019, the Justice Department sued the company for allowing advertisers to discriminate against Facebook users based on their race, gender, religion and other characteristics. The company ultimately settled the lawsuit and agreed to change its ad technology and pay a $115,054 fine.