In the last couple of months, Facebook has been changing the way they present ads and pages on their platforms in a way to add more transparency to their users. This should help Facebook offer a better experience to their users and put more accountability in their ecosystems to prevent any sort of abuse from advertisers, specifically those running commercial or political campaigns.

Here are the major updates for ads and pages that users can view:

  • Active ads: Users can view the ads that companies are running across Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and FaceBook’s partner network, even if those ads aren’t targeted to them.They can do this by visiting any page and select “Info and Ads” on the left.
    In addition, viewers can also report any ad, if they notice that it’s offensive or inappropriate to them.
  • More page information: Users can also view any specific change on a company’s page, even if that company is not advertising anything, such as the page’s name or the date it was created.

Increased Transparency and Accountability for Electoral and Issue Ads

FaceBook also imposed new rules and regulations on political ads to increase transparency and accountability for advertisers.

Advertisers should be authorized to run electoral ads on Facebook and Instagram. In order to get authorization, they should confirm their identity and location.

Furthermore, these sponsored ads will be labeled as ”Political Ad – Paid for by ______”.

The purpose of emphasizing on transparency is to reduce future political abuse and ensure that users have the information that they need to assess political ads, as well as content on pages.

By increasing the level of transparency around Ads and Pages, Facebook seem to be revisiting their position in terms of users interests and are trying to earn back their social authority after it had diminished when they first introduced “Sponsored Ads” back in January 2012.