Facebook will now require Political Ads to thoroughly verify their sponsors – A move to Fight Public Opinion Rigging during Electioneering periods

There has probably not been a tougher time for Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg other than the recent couple of months. The social media platform, which has grown to control so much of people’s personal data across the world, was accused of laxity in their user data protection.

The very laxity that led to Cambridge Analytica gaining personal data of millions of Facebook users around the world. The company Analytica has been accused of meddling with elections around the world and running online campaigns, which led to the rigging of public opinion in favor of political seat candidates who hired their services.

Such accusations were facing Cambridge Analytica with the Brexit vote, the last U.S. Presidential Election, and the Kenya’s General Elections among others. The heat has not yet died down on Facebook, with a section of the corporate world across America and the world in general calling for mass deletion of Facebook accounts.

The deleted Facebook campaigns have seen companies such as Tesla and Playboy delete their Facebook pages. While other sites such Bumble dropping the Facebook login requirement, followed by accusations that malware targets Facebook login details with over 45,000 infections reported recently.

Facebook cleaning up its act with Fake News meant for Public Opinion Rigging

To say that Facebook has burnt its fingers from the recent electioneering periods political campaigns on its social network platform will be an understatement. Given there are widespread campaigns for users to delete their accounts, calls for the resignation of the CEO, and grilling of its founder by the U.S. lawmakers.

Having learned that it will not be business, as usual, going forward, Facebook is said will require political content advertisers to verify themselves. That is to say; you will not be able to post ads on Facebook endorsing a specific candidate or political party if you don’t sufficiently reveal your identity.

The upcoming U.S. Midterm Elections

The U.S. lawmakers recently grilled the social network CEO, and the country is set to undergo another electioneering period with its Midterm Elections.

Having learned from its recent users’ data protection mistakes, Facebook is reportedly working on strengthening its platform in preparations for the U.S. midterm elections. The company will require sponsors of political ads to sufficiently verify their identity before such ads are carried on the platform.

The advertisers will also have to disclose where they are located. Additionally, administrators of Facebook Pages with a huge following will also be required to verify their identities and addresses. Though the company has not yet confirmed what number of followers will require such verification.