Facebook and Instagram to let users turn off political adverts

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Facebook and Instagram to let users turn off political adverts

Critics say Facebook is actively enabling the spread of political misinformation online, but the social network has now come up with its own idiosyncratic solution: shift responsibility to the public at large by letting users “turn off” political ads they don’t like.

Rival social platform Twitter banned political advertising last October

Facebook boss Mark Zuckerberg says users will be able to turn off political adverts on the social network in the run-up to the 2020 US election.

“For those of you who’ve already made up your minds and just want the election to be over, we hear you -- so we’re also introducing the ability to turn off seeing political ads,” Mr Zuckerberg wrote.

In a piece written for USA Today newspaper, he also says he hopes to help four million Americans sign up as new voters.

Facebook and its subsidiary Instagram will give users the option to turn off political adverts when they appear or they can block them using the settings featuresUsers that have blocked political adverts will also be able to report them if they continue to appear.

The feature, which will start rolling out on Wednesday, allows users to turn off political, electoral and social issue adverts from candidates and other organisations that have the "Paid for" political disclaimer.

As part of the initiative a new information hub, called The Voting Information Center, will be put at the top of American users’ Facebook and Instagram feeds from the beginning of July.

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