Facebook is being criticised by transparency groups for blocking their ability to monitor political ads, despite the social media giant’s claim the move was to protect people’s privacy.
Non-profit newsroom ProPublica, Mozilla and British political ad monitoring group Who Targets Me have all reported this week that their tools, which let people see why they’re being targeted by ads, have been blocked by the platform.
The tools works as a plug-in, such as ProPublica's PAC, which users can add to their web browser to allow it to collect basic information about ads, such as the Facebook ad identification number and the dates ads were seen.
The tools were launched in response to widespread privacy concern following the Cambridge Analytica scandal and Russian interference in the 2016 US elections.
However, in response, Facebook said it was part of a routine crackdown on data privacy.
“We regularly improve the ways we prevent unauthorised access by third parties like web browser plugins to keep people’s information safe,” a Facebook spokesperson said.
“This was a routine update and applied to adblocking and ad scraping plugins, which can expose people’s information to bad actors in ways they did not expect.”
Facebook has similar transparency tools it provides, such as the “Info and Ads” section and a searchable library for information about political ads running on its site.
In its post, ProPublica said such tools aren’t sufficient and that it regularly catches ads the platform’s archives doesn’t include, such as the National Rifle Association and an electoral reform advocacy group targeting Bernie Sanders supporters.
The move comes as Australia prepares to head to the polls over the next few months.
Last month, the ACCC revealed its preliminary report into Google, Facebook and the Australian news and advertising sector.
A key recommendation was establishing a 'digital platform ombudsman' to investigate complaints.
The ACCC is accepting submission until 15 February, with the full report expected by June 2019.
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