ID Will Be Required For Political-Leaning Advertisers

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Advertisers With Political Leanings Will Be Required With IDs

Google will require IDs for political-leaning advertisers to verify their identity.  The company will also produce a transparency report and a searchable database.  New transparency rules concerning US election ads will be implemented by Google this week.

ID

A Requirement To Purchase Election Ads

Google Senior Vice President Ken Walker says that anyone who wants to purchase election ads in the US will now be required to prove that they are US citizens or residents by providing a government-issued ID and other key information.

The company will also begin to release a new Transparency Report that will show who is purchasing political ads.  This report will also show how much the advertisers are spending.  A “searchable library” will also be rolled out for users to search through to find the identity of advertisers.  The ID requirement is not only for advertisers but for page managers, as well.

 Facebook Has The Same Requirement

It is not only Google who will implement the ID requirement.  Facebook also said that it will require these advertisers to verify their identity and location.  This is not only for “political ads” but for “issue ads” also.  By issue ads we mean promoting views on key political issues – like abortion and Second Amendment rights.

The company says artificial intelligence and actual humans will comb through advertisers. Users can also report ads that are political in nature but missing verification.

Large Page Managers

The identity and location verification does not only apply to advertisers.  Managers of “large” pages must also do the same.  Facebook has not elaborated on what constitutes large pages.  But the company said that the managers of those large pages will have to demonstrate where they live and who they are.  The reason for this identity and location verification is this should make fake Pages harder to spring up and for them to go viral.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg published a post announcing these changes today, and said that the company support the proposed Honest Ads Act.  According to Zuckerberg, “this will help raise the bar for all political advertising online.”