Facebook wants to prevent advertisers from changing the titles of news articles based on the advertising message they seek to convey, said Monday the social network, often criticized for its lack of reaction to scandals manipulation of opinion. The California giant has confirmed taking action after a BBC article title has been changed in a political advertisement, to make it appear that the UK government was more generous in its spending on education than in reality .
The conservative British party had replaced the original title "School spending: boost of several billion pounds" by it: "14 billion pounds sterling for schools", according to the NGO Full Fact, specializing in verification of the facts. "We are working to put in place protections by the end of the year to ensure that publications maintain control over how their titles appear (when they are picked up) in advertisements," said Facebook in a statement. answer to a question from AFP.
The social network has taken various measures to fight misinformation
Facebook and other digital platforms are routinely accused by the authorities and NGOs of being a stepping stone to user manipulation campaigns, including for political purposes. As a result, the social network has taken various steps to combat misinformation.
Visibly misleading ads are usually removed, but stay up to 7 years in the social network archives.
Facebook now also requires those who publish political ads to disclose who funds these messages.