Meta Refuses to Provide AI Advertising Tools to Political Marketers
Meta’s Decision to Restrict AI Tools
In their continued efforts to combat misinformation and regulate content, Facebook’s parent company, Meta, has decided not to make their generative AI tools available to political marketers. These experimental tools have the capability to adjust images, generate backgrounds, and automatically write captions for videos. While Meta has not publicly disclosed this decision, it falls in line with other social media platforms like TikTok and Snap that have banned political ads on their networks.
Industry-wide Precautions
Meta’s decision is not unique, as other tech giants such as Google also employ measures to prevent their AI advertising tools from being used for political purposes. Google makes use of a “keyword blacklist” to filter out political speech, and social media platform X (formerly Twitter) has also implemented similar restrictions for political advertisements.
To ensure fairness and authenticity, Meta does allow some exceptions to their ban on generative AI tools. While misleading AI-generated videos are prohibited in all content, including non-paid posts, the company permits exceptions for parody or satire. These exceptions are currently being reviewed by Meta’s independent Oversight Board in a case involving an altered video of President Biden, which Meta argued was not created using AI.
Commitments and Safeguards
In July, Facebook, alongside other leading AI companies in Silicon Valley, voluntarily committed to implementing technical and policy safeguards for their future generative AI systems. These commitments, set out by the White House, include efforts to address model behaviors that could potentially spread misinformation, sharing trust and safety information with the government and industry, and developing measures like digital watermarking to authenticate official content.
Source: Meta reportedly won’t make its AI advertising tools available to political marketers
