Facebook clamps down on political advertisers ahead of 2020 elections

Facebook is again imposing stricter rules on political advertisers ahead of the 2020 elections.

The social network announced a set of new rules that will apply to any organization running ads related to an election or a political “issue.” The move is Facebook’s latest attempt to cut down on potential interference ahead of the 2020 election in the U.S. 

With the new rules, political advertisers will need to provide Facebook with more details about who is behind the ads before they can run. The company already required political advertisers to verify their identities, but critics have said the policy was too lax and easy to game. 

“There are a number of cases where advertisers have attempted to put misleading ‘Paid for by’ disclaimers on their ads,” Facebook wrote in a statement. 

Now, political ad buyers will need to provide either a tax identification number, a Federal Election Commission identification number, or a government website domain that matches a corresponding .gov or .mil email address. 

If it’s a smaller organization that can’t meet these requirements, Facebook will allow them to verify their identity with “a verifiable phone number, business email, mail-deliverable address and a business website with a domain that matches the email.”

Once a group has verified their identity, anyone who views their ads will be able to see who paid for the ad and that Facebook has confirmed the organization’s FEC or tax ID number. 

“This will allow people to confidently gauge the legitimacy of an organization and quickly raise questions or concerns if they find anything out of the ordinary,” Facebook writes. 

The new rules will go into effect in mid-September and advertisers will have one month to meet the new requirements.