Meta is revising its rules for political advertisements to cover images and videos generated by artificial intelligence.
Instagram and Facebook's parent company previously said it will require political advertisers to disclose use of AI on its platforms, but it is now revealing more about its policy going into effect in 2024, ahead of next year's presidential election.
"Starting in the new year, advertisers will also have to disclose when they use AI or other digital techniques to create or alter a political or social issue ad in certain cases. This applies if the 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," Meta said in a blog post.
"It also applies if an ad depicts a realistic-looking person that does not exist or a realistic-looking event that did not happen, alters footage of a real event, or depicts a realistic event that allegedly occurred, but that is not a true image, video, or audio recording of the event," it said.
AI has enormous capabilities, being able to generate lifelike images and videos of real people, and can even mimic their voices. But in the wrong hands, this could create chaos — especially in an election year — with the potential for fake content of candidates or inaccurate footage of election fraud.
Meta says it will label political ads that use AI-generated imagery
Meta is the latest company to generate rules regarding artificial intelligence involvement in political ads running on its platforms.
Meta has in the past been slammed for its practices, such as when it allowed a digitally altered video of Rep. Nancy Pelosi seemingly slurring her words from intoxication to remain on Facebook in 2019. While not an ad, the video garnered millions of views, causing many to question her mental state. Even former President Donald Trump and former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani commented on the video.
Meanwhile, Google and YouTube made the decision to remove that same video from their platforms.
In regard to rules for political ads, Meta said its policies include an authorization process and require a "paid for by" disclaimer.
Meta said it will also continue its policy of blocking new political, electoral or social issue ads from running on election week. This is because there may not be adequate time to contest new claims made in ads. This does not apply to ads that had run previously, which can still run during this period.
