Video by PBS NewsHour
Facebook has announced a number of changes to its policy around online political ad placement, again raising questions about how foreign-sourced cash will impact the 2020 election.
The company’s director of product management, Rob Leathern, announced Thursday, new restrictions on political ad purchase based on IP addresses, geolocation information and person-to-person communication.
It will also stop accepting foreign political ad buyer IP addresses with Wi-Fi and if they download software from certain browser extensions. It also prevented foreign purchaser IP addresses from buying political ads on Facebook.
However, Leathern writes, The policy will only apply to ads that appear in News Feed, unless we determine they’re being posted by someone directly on Facebook. So campaigns and issue advocacy groups will still be able to purchase political ads using Facebook through their digital channels.
Leathern goes on to note that political ad buyers in Australia, Denmark, France, New Zealand, South Korea, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland will also now be required to have a secondary individual account. He also says in case an Australian, French or South Korean user use a US IP address, a call to Facebook’s public policy team will need to be made.
Get the latest updates on Facebook’s political ad policies here.