Do you feel Facebook is getting over with political advertisements? CNBC reported that Facebook users, at least in the United States, can now have the freedom to "turn off" political ads on the social networking platform.
Here is the statement from CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
"For those of you who've already made up your minds and want the election to be over, we hear you - so we're also introducing the ability to turn off seeing political ads. We'll still remind you to vote," he said.
'Controversial' decision?
Many media outlets such as Yahoo! Tech tagged this as a "controversial decision" in where social media will moderate political ads and wherein users can have more control over what they see.
On Tuesday, Facebook made this announcement via a blog post and op-ed the CEO wrote. His posts also indicated the option was originally announced in January, but would now add it in preparation for the 2020 presidential elections in the U.S.
For some U.S. users, the option can be utilized immediately, gradually coming into a full-fledged feature in the next weeks. This freedom to disable political ads will include ads from political candidates, as well as electronic and social issues involved. It will appear as a pop up for users on an ad on the social media platform, and also on Instagram. The photo-sharing platform is now a subsidiary and partner company of Facebook.
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Giving people voices
"By giving people a voice, registering and turning out voters, and preventing interference, I believe Facebook is supporting and strengthening our democracy in 2020 and beyond," Zuckerberg continued in his op-ed post. "And for those of you who've already made up your minds and just want the election to be over, we hear you - so we're also introducing the ability to turn off seeing political ads. We'll still remind you to vote."
According to Yahoo! Tech, "Facebook may have previously announced its intention to allow users to see fewer political ads, but the language in its blog post from the beginning of this year said only that it would add a setting to let people see 'fewer' political ads-not turn them off altogether as the company is announcing now."
The post on January defended Facebook's decision not to verify and fact-check these ads or limit their tools for the target readers.
However, social media experts noticed discrepancies, such as showing users "fewer ads" about the topic more than disabling these entirely.
During the previous week, for instance, presidential nominee Joe Biden called on Facebook to verify their political advertising two weeks before the U.S. elections.
There will also be two ad transparency changes, ensuring that "Paid for by" disclaimers in the online political ads follow these measures right after it has been shared. Previously, this was only available for presidential campaigns in the United States.
