Political advertisers on Facebook and Instagram in Kenya will now be required to prove their real identity

Anyone seeking to run political ads on Facebook and Instagram in Kenya will now be required to prove their identity and that they reside in the country.

This is one of the many tools and resources that Facebook parent company Meta shared to provide more information about political advertising on its platforms ahead of the Kenya 2022 general elections.

Meta says the resources which part of its efforts towards elections integrity in the country are meant to enhance transparency in political advertising to help people know who is behind the political ads they see on Facebook and Instagram.  They are also meant to equip political advertisers with key resources to reach and engage their supporters and potential voters throughout the election period.

 “Meta has continued to invest in technology towards election integrity. We believe political discussion and debate should be transparent to every voter, which is why over the past few years we’ve introduced a number of tools that provide more information about political ads on Facebook and Instagram.” Meta’s Public Policy Director, East & Horn of Africa Mercy Ndegwa, said.

After verifying their identity Meta says it will then run additional checks to ensure the political ads comply with its policies. Political ads in Kenya will also be labelled with a “Paid for by” disclaimer to show who’s behind the ad.

Meta will at the same time put political ads that run in Kenya on its Ads Library so that everyone can see what ads are running, information about targeting, and how much was spent. This fully searchable archive will store these ads for seven years.

Meta's tools for political advertising on Facebook
and Instagram ahead of Kenya's 2022 Elections pic.twitter.com/U6hPJC3Gkq

— Kanali (@NicKanali) March 24, 2022

In addition to providing more transparency, Meta last year announced that it was rolling out new controls so that people can choose to see fewer social issue, electoral, and political ads. When people use these controls, they’ll no longer see ads that run with a “Paid for by” disclaimer.

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