Meta improves transparency on targeting options for political & social discourse ads

Catering to the concern of users relying on transparency tools for targeting choices of advertisers to understand the impact of digital advertising on elections, political campaigns, and social discourse, Meta is providing more information on the upcoming tools.

The information on the transparency tools on targeting options for political & social discourse ads is applicable to 242 countries where the tools by Meta are available, including India.

Meta will make detailed targeting information about these types of ads available through the Facebook Open Research and Transparency (FORT) environment, a platform designed to enable academic researchers to study and garner insights about social media's impact on society. The platform has been expanded with data for social issues, and electoral and political ads run globally since August 2020.

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Ad Library being launched in July will integrate a rundown of targeting information for social issues, electoral, and political ads. The brief information will include data on the total number of ads an individual page ran using what type of targeting such as location, demographics, and interests, along with the percentage of ad spends dispensed on these targeting options.

For instance, the brief statement would state "XYZ page ran 2,000 ads on electoral ads and spent 40% of their ad spends for people located in Mumbai" or are "people interested in politics".