Facebook to black out foreign political advert in Nigeria during 2019 election

Facebook has said it will not accept foreign political advert targeted at the 2019 election. Facebook in a statement said for Nigeria and Ukraine we will temporarily expand enforcement and not accept foreign electoral ads around their elections, starting with Nigeria on January 16”. 

It said “as we prepare for major elections around the world this year, we’re continuing our focus on preventing foreign interference and giving people more information about the ads they see across our platforms. Our work this year builds on our political ad transparency efforts that we launched in the US, the UK  and Brazil. Political advertisers in these countries must confirm their identity and location before they can run ads, and their ads are housed in a public, searchable Ad Library for up to seven years.

“In the coming months, we’ll be rolling out additional protections ahead of upcoming elections. Nigeria and Ukraine we will temporarily expand enforcement and not accept foreign electoral ads around their elections, starting with Nigeria on January 16. India in February, we’ll launch an AD Library and enforce authorisation ahead of the country’s general elections this spring. In EU we plan to roll out ad transparency tools before May elections and Global by the end of June, we’ll provide a set of these tools for advertisers around the world.

“By shining a light on political ads, news organisations, regulators, watchdog groups and people anywhere in the world can hold advertisers and us more accountable.