2018 has been a remarkable year in the history of social media platforms. Social networking platforms made country-specific changes, be it labeling forwarded messages or launching a public awareness campaign against fake news; great power comes great responsibility.
Social media platforms like WhatsApp and Facebook have been facing a massive backlash in India since they have been attributed liable to being a carrier of hate messages and fake news, that immense mob violence. And, now they take to the prospects of stricter government rules for greater accountability and regulatory scrutiny ahead of the polls.
Globally, the tech and social giants scrambled to make efforts to mollify users with better control of their digital profile and data trail as they faced backlash over data breaches. The Indian market was no different. Earlier this year, Facebook came under the regulatory glare after a global data leak scandal hit about 87 million users.
Facebook will place electoral ads in a searchable online library that is due to start from next month. The Indian archive will contain contact information for some ad buyers or their official regulatory certificates. Other Facebook teams remain focused on identifying problematic political behavior unrelated to ads. – Rob Leathern, Director of product management, India
On Tuesday, Facebook announced that it would extend some of its political advertising rules and tools for curbing election interference to India and other counties like Nigeria, Ukraine, and the European Union before its essential election in the next few months. Buying Facebook ads can widen the audience, but some of those influence efforts may violate election rules and the company’s policies.
