30.10.2020
11:08
The social network explained that some technical problems and confusion on the part of some advertisers regarding its new rules affected the dissemination of some content
October 30, 2020 Share on FacebookShare Share on TwitterTweet Share on WhatsAppShare
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg appears on a monitor during his hearing in the United States Senate on monopolistic practices (Reuters)
A report published on Thursday made it clear that Facebook’s advertising tools were causing political campaign ads, even those that adhered to the new rules of the social network, to stop. This generated a storm of criticism from different political sectors who believed that this could negatively affect the dissemination of their presidential campaigns.
Facebook explained on its blog that the blockade occurred due to a technical failure that affected the dissemination of some political ads from both parties (Democrats and Republicans) and clarified that it was investigating the problem. ” No ad was stopped or rejected by a person, or for any partisan consideration ,” the company clarified.
It should be remembered that the social network implemented a new measure that prevented the receipt of new announcements in the system the week before the vote, which will take place on November 3.
“ As part of our efforts to ensure maximum transparency of political advertising, we began restricting new broadcast and political ads ahead of next week’s elections. We took this step so that all political announcements could be searched in our public announcement library before Election Day , ”the company explained on its blog.
But political ads were supposed to be allowed if they were within the deadline and following the stipulated guidelines.
Illustrative file image of the Facebook logo on a computer screen seen through a magnifying glass held by a woman in Bern, Switzerland. May 19, 2012. REUTERS / Thomas Hodel / Archive
Facebook said that most of the political ads were not affected but there were some problems that affected the campaigns of both political parties. While some were technical issues, others were due to advertisers not understanding the instructions they were given on how and when to make changes to ad targeting.
“ After the restriction took effect, on October 27 at 12:01 a.m. M. Pacific Time, technical failures in the ability of our systems to detect that an ad was successfully registered in the Ads Library caused multiple ads from a wide range of advertisers to stop incorrectly. and prevented advertisers from making permitted changes to their ads , ”the company explained.
And they added that there were also failures in some cases because advertisers had made targeting changes shortly before the deadline, which had created new ads that had to go through pre-approval before the deadline and were never done.
“We’ve made changes to address these issues, and most political ads now run smoothly. We continue to monitor closely to ensure that all of our fixes are working and that the announcements are running as expected long before the election, ”the company said.
It should be noted that Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg assured investors that political ads are just a single digit of the company’s total revenue.
