Facebook will label ads from politically connected publications
The company also won't include those outlets in Facebook News.
With the 2020 presidential election coming up, Facebook is introducing a new policy that will require US-based publications connected with political parties, PACs and politicians to disclose their affiliation when they buy political ads.
Facebook will still allow those outlets to register as a news page and advertise, but they'll need to go through the company's authorization and disclaimer process when they want to post ads that touch on social issues, elections or politics. Previously these groups could, in some instances, claim news exemptions from Facebook's authorization process.
The social media giant plans to impose other restrictions as well. The company says it won't include their content in Facebook News. They also won't have access to the Messenger Business Platform and WhatsApp business API.
"... we believe it's important to ensure when it comes to advertising, these Pages are held to the same standard as political entities on Facebook," the company said.
Facebook says identifying politically connected publishers is a "new process" for the company, but today's announcement builds on policies the company has been tweaking for the past few years. In 2018, the company introduced a rule that required election- and issue-related ads to include a "paid for by" disclosure. However, after the policy ended up affecting non-political ads and publishers, the company later exempt US-based media outlets from it.
