Facebook Backs Bill to Regulate Online Political Ads Similar to Those on Traditional Media

Facebook will require identity and location disclosure for political advertisers, it announced Friday, also endorsing a key bill to thwart foreign interference in elections and becoming perhaps the first major tech company to do so. "Election interference is a problem that's bigger than any one platform, and that's why we support" the Honest Ads Act (see 1803260045), CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Friday. "This will help raise the bar for all political advertising online." The bill would pave the way to apply some disclosure rules to online ads that are now required for ads on more traditional media. The Cambridge Analytica intrusion and Facebook's role also came up at length at a panel discussion Friday (see 1804060057)

.Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., praised the backing and the company mirroring ad disclosure requirements in the bill. The measure, by Warner and Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., would regulate online political ads by the same rules as those on TV, radio and satellite TV. The Internet Association declined to comment. Facebook faces continued scrutiny in Washington, with a new complaint to the FTC and with a legislator asking the FCC to look at whether its rules were broken when Cambridge Analytica used data from Facebook users without their full consent.

Since October, only Facebook-authorized advertisers have been able to run electoral ads there, and the company is extending that to “issue ads” on political topics. Identity and location will be required for authorization, and users can expect to see related ad labeling in the U.S. this spring, it said. Most Facebook ads paid for by Russia’s Internet Research Agency “prior to the 2016 election didn’t mention Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump -- but they did mention divisive political issues like guns, LGBT rights, immigration, and racial issues,” Warner said, urging other platforms to follow Facebook’s example.

If Republican lawmakers demand new privacy limits from Facebook when Zuckerberg testifies at two mid-April hearings, that could encourage the FTC to take a more aggressive stance toward online platforms, Cowen analyst Paul Gallant wrote Thursday. “It also would increase prospects for Congress to pass privacy legislation in the next couple of years."

The FCC should investigate whether Facebook users’ viewing data was sold to Cambridge Analytica, Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., said Friday. Reports suggest that Cambridge Analytica’s chief revenue officer claimed the company “could not only use such viewing habits to understand voters’ preferences, but that the company could also use that data in conjunction with new smart TVs and set-top-boxes to target political content on televisions,” Dingell wrote FCC Chairman Ajit Pai. The agency didn't comment.

Facebook facial recognition practices threaten user privacy and violate the FTC’s 2011 consent decree, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and consumer groups complained Friday. “Scanning of facial images without express, affirmative consent is unlawful and must be enjoined.”

Users can disallow this facial ID anytime, Facebook Deputy Chief Privacy Officer Rob Sherman said in a statement. “When someone has their setting turned off, we don't use this technology to identify them in photos.” An FTC spokeswoman confirmed the agency received the letter.