Meta asks advertisers to disclose if social or political ads are digitally created

Meta has announced a new policy that requires advertisers to disclose when they digitally create or alter a political or social issue ad in certain cases on Facebook or Instagram, including through the use of AI. Advertisers will have to disclose whenever a social issue, electoral, or political ad contains a photorealistic image or video, or realistic-sounding audio, that was digitally created or altered to:

• Depict a real person as saying or doing something they did not say or do; or
• Depict a realistic-looking person that does not exist or a realistic-looking event that did not happen, or alter footage of a real event that happened; or
• Depict a realistic event that allegedly occurred, but that is not a true image, video, or audio recording of the event.

Advertisers running these ads do not need to disclose when content is digitally created or altered in ways that are inconsequential or immaterial to the claim, assertion, or issue raised in the ad. This may include image size adjusting, cropping an image, colour correction, or image sharpening, unless such changes are consequential or material to the claim, assertion, or issue raised in the ad.

Meta will add information on the ad when an advertiser discloses in the advertising flow that the content is digitally created or altered. This information will also appear in the Ad Library. In case an advertiser doesn’t disclose as required, Meta will reject the ad and repeated failure to disclose may result in penalties against the advertiser. Meta will share additional details about the specific process advertisers will go through during the ad creation process.

Meta’s independent fact-checking partners review and rate viral misinformation and any ad that is rated as False, Altered, Partly False, or Missing Context is not allowed to run on its platform. For example, fact-checking partners can rate content as “Altered” if they determine it was created or edited in ways that could mislead people, including through the use of AI or other digital tools.