SOUND OF SILENCE
Facebook lets you turn off annoying political ads from TODAY – here’s how
FACEBOOK will let users turn off political adverts in the run-up to the 2020 US election starting from today.
This comes as the social media giant faced backlash for allowing political adverts that contained false information.
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A Facebook blogpost states: "Political ads play an important role in every election – and this year will be no exception.
"People have told us they want the option to see fewer political ads on Facebook and Instagram.
"After announcing this feature earlier this year we are now making it available as part of our preparations for the 2020 US elections.
"Starting today for some people and rolling out to everyone in the US over the next few weeks, people will be able to turn off all social issue, electoral or political ads from candidates, Super PACs or other organizations that have the “Paid for by” political disclaimer on them.
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"You can do this on Facebook or Instagram directly from any political or social issue ad or through each platform’s ad settings."
This feature is currently only rolling out in the US.
The social media giant released videos showing how US users can now change their Ad Preferences on Facebook and Instagram.
It aims to make this available in other countries where Facebook has "enforcement on ads about social issues, elections and politics" towards the end of the year.
Facebook has admitted that this new system isn't perfect and has asked users to report ads if they've selected the option not to see them but still have them popping up.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg also wants to encourage more people to sign up and vote in the upcoming US election this November.
He wrote in the USA Today newspaper: "I believe Facebook has a responsibility not just to prevent voter suppression -- which disproportionately targets people of colour -- but to actively support well-informed voter engagement, registration, and turnout."
New information about the election will be put at the top of US Instagram and Facebook user newsfeeds from July.
This will include information about how to register to vote.
Major Facebook rival Twitter banned political advertising last October.
What info does Facebook hold on you?
- All the data on your profile - name, age, marital status, where you went to work, and so on.
- Your activity on the site - which posts you like, pages followed, photos shared.
- Its tracker cookies (which most websites use) can even follow you around the internet, so Facebook can also get an idea of the types of websites you like to visit – to serve you more relevant advertisements.
Donald Trump signs executive order targeting Facebook and Twitter for ‘censoring’ and calling on law changes
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In other news, Instagram has come under fire after researchers found the app pushes semi-naked photos to the top of news feeds.
Facebook is working on a "Close Friends" feature for Stories just like Instagram.
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And, Google has deleted over 30 popular apps from the Play Store.
How often do you see political posts online? Let us know in the comments...
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