After years of working out how to manage political advertising across Facebook and Instagram, Meta has introduced a new policy to address the impact of artificial intelligence on political advertising. The company stated that starting next year, political advertisers worldwide will be required to disclose their use of third-party AI software in political or social issue ads to synthetically depict people and events.
Meta also announced that it would prohibit advertisers from using its own AI-assisted software to create certain ads and would require disclosures for the use of third-party AI tools. The company believes that this approach will help them understand potential risks and impose necessary safeguards for the use of generative AI in ads related to regulated industries.
With the rising popularity of AI tools in the past year, Meta is grappling with the challenges posed by manipulated or false imagery, video, and audio. The company has also faced challenges with political advertising, particularly in light of the 2016 incident where the social network’s ads were used by Russians to sow discontent among Americans.
Currently, political advertisers on Meta are obliged to go through an authorization process and include a “paid for by” disclaimer on their ads, which are stored in the company’s public Ad Library for seven years. However, when Meta’s new AI policy goes into effect, advertisers will also have to disclose their use of AI tools to alter the ads.
Furthermore, political and social issue ads that have used AI to alter images, video, and audio without disclosing it will be rejected. Meta has also indicated that organizations repeatedly attempting to submit such ads without disclosures will be penalized. By prohibiting the use of its own AI-assisted software for certain ads, Meta may be able to avoid potential issues and legal action related to its advertising technology.
In 2019, the company was sued by the Justice Department for allowing advertisers to discriminate against Facebook users based on their characteristics. The lawsuit resulted in Meta agreeing to change its ad technology and paying a penalty.
