Starting August, Facebook will introduce strict transparency rules for political advertising in Georgia

A few months before the parliamentary elections in October 2020, Facebook has established new rules for ensuring the transparency of political and election advertising in Georgia – everyone who posts political ads will have to indicate who commissioned the ad, who paid for it, how much it costs, and which users in what geographic area and of what age group are the target audience.

The regulation on political and election transparency will enter into force in early August.

By this time, Facebook will provide advertisers with information on ad transparency requirements.

Facebook made this decision after receiving an open letter send by about 50 non-governmental organizations operating in Georgia. They asked for transparency in the political and election campaign in the country before the election.

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Facebook sent a response letter, which read:

“From August 2020, we will demand authorization for political and election advertising in Georgia. This will provide an unprecedented degree of transparency and credibility regarding this advertisement. In this way, people will be able to see who is trying to influence their votes in the election and why.”

“This is an important step forward, but it is obvious that the problems of using social networks to influence public opinion are not completely eliminated. Nevertheless, I think that the transparency of political advertising on Facebook will help improve the electoral environment in 2020,” said Mikhail Benidze, a representative of the NGO Fair Elections.