Facebook tightens political ad rules in EU ahead of May elections

John Thys | AFP | Getty Images

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg arrives at the European Parliament on May 22, 2018.

Facebook implemented restrictions on its political advertising rules in the European Union Friday, in an effort to prevent abuse and interference in the run up to EU Parliament elections in May.

The company said in a blog post that it would expand on measures it put in place last year in countries including the U.K., U.S. and India. These measures mean political advertisers need to undergo checks to prove they live in the country they’re targeting.

Ads will also be labeled with disclosures identifying who paid for them and their contact details too, provided they’re a business and not an individual. Ads that haven’t been registered by mid-April will be blocked.

A new feature the company is introducing is called Ads Library, an improvement on its archive tool, that lets users search political ads on a public database to find information on the number of times an ad was viewed and demographic data about who saw it. The ads are to be stored on Facebook’s library for seven years.