Social media giants tighten norms for political ads

With Facebook tightening rules for political advertisements in Europe ahead of the Brexit vote, its arm in India, as well as other players such as Twitter and Google, have laid out rules for political parties in the run-up to the general elections.

Twitter has introduced political advertising transparency standards in India, which are already in place in the US, the EU and Australia. The micro-blogging site has also set up an Ads Transparency Centre that can be accessed by anyone.

Siddharth Hegde, MD, Ethinos Digital Marketing, termed Twitter’s political ads policy a much-needed move. “Most countries across the world already have such policies in place, and this is a first for India for its forthcoming elections. We are likely to see more transparent conversations and campaigns and a decrease in the number of companies and individuals running fake campaigns,” he said.