Facebook and Google restrict election advertising
Facebook has banned the publication of election advertising financed from abroad in Indonesia ahead of the presidential election on April 17. This is intended to prevent foreign influence on the vote, the online network announced on Monday.
The Facebook ban in Indonesia therefore applies to all advertising that refers to politicians or political parties, as well as attempts to encourage people to vote or discourage them from doing so. The review of advertisements and commercials is carried out both mechanically and by employees, it said.
In Indonesia, incumbent Joko Widodo is running again in the upcoming presidential election against former general Prabowo Subianto, who already lost to him in 2014. At that time, there were fierce disputes between the political camps during the election campaign.
In February, the Russian embassy in Jakarta denied that Moscow was interfering in the current election campaign after Joko accused the opposing camp of "Russian propaganda". The opposition, on the other hand, accuses the president of being too close to China.
In the run-up to several important elections in the Asia-Pacific region, Facebook says it is also planning a new headquarters in Singapore to combat election interference, fake news and hate speech on the internet.
In Europe, Facebook already stopped foreign election advertising in Ukraine in January with a view to the upcoming presidential election on March 31. For the European Parliament elections in May, Facebook promises to introduce transparency measures that are already in place in the USA.
So far, this has included the requirement that anyone wishing to place advertisements with political content must provide their identity and location. In addition, the ads are to be stored in a publicly accessible database for up to seven years. Facebook came under fire after propaganda campaigns run by Russia became known during the 2016 US presidential election campaign.
Google, for its part, wants to completely abandon election advertising on its platforms ahead of the parliamentary elections in Canada, which are due to take place on October 21 at the latest. According to Canadian media reports on Tuesday, the company explained that it would be virtually impossible to comply with the new transparency rules.
A law passed in December stipulates that internet platforms should keep a register of all published political advertisements. As ads are placed automatically, Google cannot know which ads the customer is seeing, the company argued. (SDA)
