Facebook adds rules to protect advertisers
Facebook’s enormous audience has long been catnip to advertisers. But the company’s ecosystem has come under scrutiny this year from major brands, which are increasingly sensitive to the possibility of inadvertently showing up next to objectionable content.
In response to those concerns, Facebook released rules on Wednesday that outline the types of videos and articles that it will bar from running ads. It also said it would begin disclosing new information to advertisers about where their messages appear on Facebook and on external apps and sites it works with.
The rules, which will be enforced by a mix of automation and human review, restrict ads from content that depicts, among other topics, real-world
tragedies, “debatable social issues,” misappropriation of children’s show characters, violence, nudity, gore, drug use and derogatory language. Facebook is extending the guidelines immediately to videos — which the company hopes will become an increasingly lucrative part of its business — and, in the coming months, to articles.
“There have been concerns that marketers have had that are wide-ranging around digital, and we want to do everything we can to ensure that we are providing the safest environment for publishers, advertisers” and users, said Carolyn Everson, Facebook’s vice president of global marketing solutions.
The policies, which mimic guidelines established by YouTube, come as advertisers demand more accountability from the Internet giants related to where and how their messages are delivered.
Facebook and Google were criticized during and after the presidential election for allowing misinformation to spread on their services. This year, YouTube had to address advertisers’ concerns after messages from major brands like AT&T were discovered on videos that promoted terrorism and hate speech. The Wall Street Journal found at least 50 acts of violence on Facebook Live broadcasts.
(On the other side of the advertising equation, Facebook disclosed last week that it had identified more than $100,000 worth of ads on divisive issues that ran from June 2015 to May 2017 and had been bought by fake accounts from Russia.)
The companies are moving quickly to address such issues, particularly as they seek to attract a greater portion of the money earmarked for television advertising to the video content on their sites.
Facebook has enabled hundreds of publishers and individuals to run ads during live video broadcasts in the past year, and the company recently introduced a slate of shows on a part of its site called “Watch.” If the guidelines encourage people to post more Grated video content, they are likely to bolster Facebook’s pitch to advertisers.
“They haven’t really been monetizing original content in the same way as YouTube has,” said John Montgomery, executive vice president for brand safety at GroupM, a media investment group for advertising giant WPP. “What I think is different for Facebook is that this is a much earlier stage for them that they’re going into this, and the scale is different in that there will be much, much less content uploaded than those stupefying numbers you hear about on YouTube.” (YouTube has said 400 hours of video are added to the site every minute.)
That should be an advantage in policing content, Montgomery said, especially with the limits that Facebook is placing on who can make money from certain features. For example, the company required pages and profiles that wanted to run ads on live videos this year to have more than 2,000 followers. They could only show ads if they had at least 300 concurrent viewers after four minutes.
Facebook also said it would begin showing advertisers a preview of where their messages may appear before campaigns start, giving advertisers a chance to block undesirable destinations. The company will also report on where the ads actually run.
Brands have not been able to see beforehand what kind of content that might include, and some have had to contend with objections from consumers after being placed on sites like Breitbart News. Facebook said there were tens of thousands of apps and sites in its audience network and that more than 10,000 publishers displayed articles within its platform through a tool called Instant Articles.
As YouTube has moved to limit ads from running alongside unsavory content, many creators have complained that their videos have been unfairly penalized by automated systems. Facebook will probably have to grapple with similar complaints as it expands the number of people who can make money from video ads.
“We are not censoring their content; as long as it abides by our community standards, the content can run,” Everson said. “If a publisher wants to monetize that content, they have to adhere to the monetization eligibility standards.”