Facebook will launch new tools next month to help prevent foreign interference in European parliamentary elections later this year and make political advertising on the platform more transparent.
It is also setting up a number of new business centres with a focus on electoral integrity, including a center at Dublin International headquarters to better coordinate its work in the final weeks before the European Parliament elections.
Anika Geisel, the company's European public policy election manager, said in a blog post that advertisers need to be authorized before buying political advertising.
She said it would also provide people with more information about the ads themselves, including who is responsible for paying for the ads.
A searchable advertising library will also be set up, which includes data on advertising performance, as well as the age, gender and location of the person watching the ad.
These tools will not only cover campaign advertising, but will also publish relevant advertisements that do not involve a particular party or candidate.
Facebook has been under increasing pressure since it was reported that foreign agents were trying to influence the results of 2016 U. S. presidential and other major elections.
Since then, the company has introduced a series of new measures to address this issue, and in its 2018 referendum on the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution, it prohibits foreign groups seeking to influence the results from advertising.
"While the vast majority of ads on Facebook are run by legitimate organizations, we know there are bad actors trying to abuse our platform," MS Geisel said . ".
"While we are satisfied with the progress we have made in the countries where advertising transparency tools are introduced, we know that these tools will not completely prevent abuse.
"We are dealing with intelligence and health.
Like we do better in preventing abuse, funding opponents who are adjusting and changing tactics.
"But we believe that this higher level of transparency is good for democracy and for the electoral process," she added . ".
According to Facebook, Dublin's new operations center will further strengthen its cooperation
Ability to coordinate and respond quickly to enable its global team to work better across regions.
It will include cross-departmental technical experts from Facebook, WhatsApp and Instagram and will work with legislators, election commission, truth of fact
Checkers, researchers, scholars and civil society groups.
It will also work with teams at California headquarters and elsewhere in Europe to add a layer of defense to false news and misinformation, hate speech, voter suppression and electoral intervention.
Facebook recently-
Nick Clegg, who was appointed head of global affairs, said at a press conference today that the company will require those who want to run politics and advertise to be authorized.
"We will show a" paid "disclaimer on these ads," Nick Clegg said . ".
Craig, the former UK deputy prime minister hired by Facebook in last October, said the new tools to be launched are designed to help protect the integrity of the EU elections to be held this spring.
Facebook says the transparency tool for election advertising will be rolled out globally by the end of June. Although these tools will be launched before the Indian elections in February, before the elections in Ukraine and Israel.
These tools are similar to those used in the middle of the United States.
Craig said he added that all political ads would be kept in a publicly searchable library for seven years.
This will contain demographic information such as the amount spent and the number of impressions displayed, the people who paid for those impressions, and the people who saw them, including age, gender, and location.
Craig also denied Facebook selling user data today.
"Selling people's information to advertisers is not only the wrong thing to do, but it will also undermine the way we do business, because it will reduce the unique value of our service to advertisers, he said.