Facebook is in much of the world’s headlines these days, many of those headlines not positive. The platform is being blamed for pretty much all that seems to be wrong in the world. I wouldn’t be surprised if someone blames facebook for the death of Elvis!
Off the top of my head facebook is being blamed for:
Russians interfering in the 2016 US elections.
Brexit fake news.
Cambridge Analytica (a 3rd party data company) stealing or scraping millions of facebook users data.
The death of privacy.
The death of dinner table conversation.
Trump.
US politicians are out for blood, and they will attempt to take down Mark Zuckerberg (facebook’s CEO) this week during hearings in Washington, DC.
So, what is Facebook doing to respond to some of these (some very real) issues and complaints?
For those of us in advocacy or political digital advertising, things are going to get less convenient. I’ve included links to some of my favorite explainers below, including links to facebook’s blog announcing what they will be doing. Please take a moment to read these thoroughly. Colin Delany and Beth Becker also do a great job on the ePolitics blog explaining what these changes mean to those of us in advocacy and politics.
TL;DR version:
Partner Ad categories will be gone. Important ad partnerships facebook has had for several years with the largest database marketing businesses in the world will be turned off. This means that targeting people based on NON-facebook data elements will be removed. This is a big deal.
Large pages will need to verify legitimate people are running them. fb won’t say what “large pages” means (how many likes for example), but they are saying that if you run one (or many), you will need to prove you are who you are.
Ad transparency: fb is attempting to provide clarity to end users (you and me) that political ads are from legitimate candidates and organizations and not the IRA (internet research agency) from Russia.
Read further in the articles that I’ve included below and let me know if you have questions.
In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, Facebook is making a big change for advertisers, removing Partner Categories from targeting options. Here’s what you need to know about the update.
