{"id":12388,"date":"2019-10-31T12:58:17","date_gmt":"2019-10-31T19:58:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/?p=12388"},"modified":"2019-10-31T12:58:17","modified_gmt":"2019-10-31T19:58:17","slug":"facebook-is-still-failing-at-ad-transparency-no-matter-what-they-claim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/10\/31\/facebook-is-still-failing-at-ad-transparency-no-matter-what-they-claim\/","title":{"rendered":"Facebook Is Still Failing at Ad Transparency (No Matter What They Claim)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Jack Dorsey made<\/a> a bold statement: Twitter will cease all political advertising on the platform. \u201cInternet political ads present entirely new challenges to civic discourse: machine learning-based optimization of messaging and micro-targeting, unchecked misleading information, and deep fakes. All at increasing velocity, sophistication, and overwhelming scale,\u201d he tweeted.<\/p>\n

Later that day, Sheryl Sandberg responded<\/a>: Facebook doesn\u2019t have to cease political advertising\u2026 because the platform is \u201cfocused and leading on transparency.\u201d Sandberg cited Facebook\u2019s ad archive efforts, which ostensibly allow researchers to study the provenance and impact of political ads.<\/p>\n

To be clear: Facebook is still falling short on its transparency commitments.<\/b> Further, even perfect transparency wouldn’t change the fact that Facebook is accepting payment to promote dangerous and untrue ads.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

Some brief history: Because of the importance of transparency in the political ad arena, Mozilla has been closely analyzing Facebook\u2019s ad archive for over a year, and assessing its ability to provide researchers and others with meaningful information.<\/p>\n

In February, Mozilla and 37 civil society organizations urged<\/a> Facebook to provide better transparency into political advertising on their platform. Then, in March, Mozilla and leading disinformation researchers laid out<\/a> exactly what an effective ad transparency archive should look like.<\/p>\n

But when Facebook finally released its ad transparency API in March, it was woefully ineffective. It met<\/a> just two of experts\u2019 five minimum guidelines. Further, a Mozilla researcher uncovered a long list<\/a> of bugs and shortcomings that rendered the API nearly useless.<\/p>\n

The New York Times<\/i> agreed: \u201cAd Tool Facebook Built to Fight Disinformation Doesn\u2019t Work as Advertised,\u201d reads a July headline<\/a>. The article continues: \u201cThe social network\u2019s new ad library is so flawed, researchers say, that it is effectively useless as a way to track political messaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

Since that time, Mozilla has confirmed that Facebook has made small changes in the API\u2019s functionality \u2014 but we still judge the tool to be fundamentally flawed for its intended purpose of providing transparency and a data source for rigorous research.<\/p>\n

Rather than deceptively promoting their failed API, Facebook must heed researchers\u2019 advice and commit to truly transparent political advertising. If they can\u2019t get that right, maybe they shouldn\u2019t be running political ads at all for the time being.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, Jack Dorsey made a bold statement: Twitter will cease all political advertising on the platform. \u201cInternet political ads present entirely new challenges to civic discourse: machine learning-based optimization of … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1532,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11375],"tags":[],"coauthors":[311813],"yoast_head":"\nFacebook Is Still Failing at Ad Transparency (No Matter What They Claim) - The Mozilla Blog (Archived)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/10\/31\/facebook-is-still-failing-at-ad-transparency-no-matter-what-they-claim\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ashley Boyd\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/10\/31\/facebook-is-still-failing-at-ad-transparency-no-matter-what-they-claim\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.mozilla.org\/blogarchive\/blog\/2019\/10\/31\/facebook-is-still-failing-at-ad-transparency-no-matter-what-they-claim\/\",\"name\":\"Facebook Is Still Failing at Ad Transparency (No Matter What They Claim) - 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