Facebook, Twitter to introduce new guidelines for political ads

In a fresh attempt to prevent foreign interferda0c2169a6391b8871481e1a11f09432-if_facebook_then_twitterence in elections globally, Facebook and Twitter have announced new guidelines for political advertisements on their platforms, beginning with the US.

Facebook has begun labelling all political and issue ads, including a “Paid for by” disclosure from the advertiser at the top of the advertisement.

Advertisers wanting to run ads with political content in the US will also need to verify their identity and location, the social media giant said in a blog post late Thursday.

Twitter on the other hand is asking advertisers who wish to target the US with political campaigning ads to file for certification and adhere to fresh rules.

The changes, currently introduced in the US, are aimed at preventing a situation like the 2016 US presidential election when Russian advertisers created fake posts and bought ads to interfere in the election process.

According to Rob Leathern, director of Product Management at Facebook, “when you click on the label, you’ll be taken to an archive with more information. For example, the campaign budget associated with an individual ad and how many people saw it-including their age, location and gender”.

If people see an ad which they believe has political content and is not labelled, they can report back to Facebook.

To do so, just tap the three dots at the top right-hand corner of the ad, select “report”, and then “it refers to a political candidate or issue”.

“Facebook will review the ad, and if it falls under our Political Advertising policy, we’ll take it down and add it to the archive,” Leathern wrote.

The advertiser will then be banned from running ads with political content until they complete Facebook’s authorisation process.

Twitter said that in addition to its Ads policies, “all political advertisers must comply with applicable laws regarding disclosure and content requirements, eligibility restrictions, and blackout dates for the countries where they advertise”.

The policy applies to ads purchased by a political committee or candidate registered with the Federal Election Commission (FEC) or ads advocating for or against a clearly identified candidate for Federal office in the US.

Foreign nationals are prohibited from targeting political campaigning advertisements to the US, Twitter said.

The Twitter handle associated with the certified ads account must provide profile photo, header photo and the website must be consistent with the Twitter handle’s online presence.

“Bio must include a website that provides valid contact info. If the handle name is not related to the certified entity, the bio must include the following disclaimer: ‘Owned by (certified entity name)’,” said Twitter.

Elon Musk ‘exactly wrong’ on AI: Eric Schmidt

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Tesla and SpaceX Founder Elon Musk’s scepticism about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its impact on human beings is “exactly wrong,” former Google CEO Eric Schmidt has said.

Musk thinks that AI is bad for humanity and may spark World War III.
“I think Elon is exactly wrong” about AI, Schmidt said during the “VivaTech” conference in Paris on Friday.
“Musk is concerned about the possible misuse of this technology and I am too but I am more convinced by the overwhelming benefit of AI,” tech website CNET quoted Schmidt as saying.
“AI will make people smarter and this will be a net gain,” said Schmidt who is currently a board member of Alphabet, Google’s parent company.
Earlier, during the same event, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg – who has been in verbal spat with Musk over AI for long — expressed optimism about the possibilities of AI.
“I think that AI is going to unlock a huge amount of positive things, whether that’s helping to identify and cure diseases, to help cars drive more safely, to help keep our communities safe,” he was quoted as saying.
Mush recently warned that if not regulated or controlled soon, AI will become an “immortal dictator” and there will be no escape for humans.
“At least when there’s an evil dictator, that human is going to die. But for an AI there would be no death. It would live forever, and then you’d have an immortal dictator, from which we could never escape,” he said in a new documentary titled “Do You Trust This Computer?”
Musk has always been a critic of AI and asked for stiff regulations to curb the technology.
In a recent tweet, Musk said that people should be more concerned with AI than the risk posed by North Korea.
“If you’re not concerned about AI safety, you should be. Vastly more risk than North Korea,” Musk tweeted.
Musk has also quit the board of OpenAI, a non-profit AI research company he co-founded that aims to promote and develop friendly AI that benefits the humanity.
In a recent public spat with Zuckerberg, Musk said: “I’ve talked to Mark about this (AI). His understanding of the subject is limited”.
Zuckerberg replied: “I think people who are naysayers and try to drum up these doomsday scenarios — I just, I don’t understand it. It’s really negative and in some ways I actually think it is pretty irresponsible.”