In a recent announcement, Facebook provided additional insights into its political advertising policies, introducing measures that require advertisers to disclose the use of artificial intelligence in modifying images and videos for specific politically themed advertisements, as reported by CNBC.
Nick Clegg, Meta’s Vice President of Global Affairs, shared details about these new advertising policies in a blog post, highlighting their alignment with the social media giant’s standard approach to ad regulations during previous election cycles.
However, what distinguishes the upcoming election season is the growing reliance on artificial intelligence techniques by advertisers to craft computer-generated visuals and texts.
Clegg mentioned in an earlier Meta announcement in early November that starting next year, Meta would mandate advertisers to reveal if they employed artificial intelligence or similar digital editing techniques “to create or modify an ad about a political or social issue in certain cases.”
“This applies to the ad if it contains a real image or video, or realistic-sounding audio that was either digitally created or altered to depict a real person saying or doing something they didn’t say or do,” he added. “It also applies to the ad if it depicts a real person with a realistic appearance who does not exist or depicts an event that did not happen, or alters footage of a real event to make it appear as if something else happened, whether it’s an image, video, or audio recording of the event.”
Meta, formerly Facebook, faced criticism, particularly during the 2016 U.S. presidential election, for not effectively curbing the spread of misinformation across its suite of applications, including Facebook and Instagram.
In 2019, Meta allowed a digitally manipulated video of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to remain on its platform, portraying her as stuttering. However, it’s worth noting that this video was not part of an advertisement.
The increasing use of artificial intelligence as a tool to amplify the creation of deceptive ads presents a new challenge for Meta, which has reduced its trust and safety team significantly as part of cost-cutting measures this year.
Meta will also implement a ban on new political, election, and social issue ads during the final week of U.S. elections, a measure Clegg mentioned is consistent with previous years. These restrictions will be lifted the day after the elections.
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