Skip to main content

Thai elections: Facebook to ban foreign-based advertisements

Ireland, Facebook, jobs, 1,000, Thailand,

Facebook will bar foreign-based election advertisements in Thailand in the lead-up to a March poll, the company said Thursday, after being pilloried for not controlling election interference on the platform.

Thailand’s vote, set for March 24, is the first since a 2014 coup and will kick off a busy ballot season in Asia, with polls set for India and Indonesia in the coming months.

Facebook has come under fire in a wave of scandals, including fueling hate speech in Myanmar and over the sharing of its users’ data.

The platform was also used for Russian “fake news” influence campaigns during 2016 US presidential elections.

Facebook, in a newsroom post, said it would help “protect” the Thai vote by temporarily not allowing ads from “foreign entities which are of an electoral nature”.

The new rules, which cover paid-for content, will take effect from mid-February and will apply to external ads with references to “politicians, parties, ‘getting out the vote’, and/or election suppression,” the post said.

It also includes political slogans and party logos and will use both automated and “human review” to make judgment calls.

Read More: Google, Facebook, Twitter must do more against fake news: EU

The rules are not unique to Thailand, and a Facebook official described them as preventative.

“It’s something that we are working on in a variety of different elections around the globe,” Katie Harbath, Facebook’s global policy director for elections, told AFP.

“All of this is based on wanting to make sure that we’re looking at all the different ways that bad actors could exploit our platform,” she added.

Harbath said there were no specific examples of content being restricted in Thailand so far, but the company was monitoring for cases where it is deemed necessary.

As in other countries in Southeast Asia, Facebook is wildly popular in Thailand where it has 52 million monthly users, according to the company.

The platform has also served as an outlet for dissent and critical voices under the junta, especially by exiles.

Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup and lives abroad to avoid charges he says are politically motivated, has a widely followed Facebook page.

His sister Yingluck, whose administration was toppled in the 2014 military power grab, was also driven into self-exile by court cases.

The siblings have lately appeared in family snapshots on Instagram — a platform owned by Facebook — and Thaksin has a podcast.

Sponsored or paid-for posts on their accounts about the election could be barred under the rules.

Harbath said the efforts were not meant to be aimed at regime critics.

“They are certainly still able to have pages on Facebook,” she said,
“this affects only advertising”, she added.

The post Thai elections: Facebook to ban foreign-based advertisements appeared first on ARYNEWS.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Accountability court hears assets case against Ishaq Dar

ISLAMABAD: An accountability court in Islamabad on Wednesday resumed the hearing of a reference filed against former finance minister Ishaq Dar by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) for allegedly accumulating assets beyond his known sources of income.  Judge Muhammad Bashir is recording the statement of a prosecution witness, Ishtiaq Ahmed. At the previous hearing, the accountability judge had reserved his verdict on an application filed by two co-accused seeking acquittal in the case. Naeem Mehmood and Mansoor Rizvi, who are directors of Dar’s companies, had filed the application requesting the judge to exonerate them from all charges for want of evidence. Qazi Misbah, the counsel for the two co-accused, contended the prosecution has failed to provide compelling evidence to prove the allegations leveled against his clients. The third co-accused President National Bank of Pakistan (NBP), Saeed Ahmed, had already filed an application before the court for his acquittal wh...
Post a Comment
Read more

SFA raids several restaurants in Karachi, imposes fine

KARACHI: The Sindh Food Authority (SFA) on Friday raided several restaurants in city’s North Nazimabad area over unhygienic conditions, ARY News reported. According to the SFA, one of the restaurants was found utilizing the used oil multiple times. The items were also not properly frozen while crockery for serving the food was also not clean. The team imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the restaurant. The SFA team found hygiene standards were sheerly compromised in food making to the core. The food inspectors said they had previously served notices to the food outlets, but the restaurant owners apparently turned a blind eye to it. Raids were also conducted in district Malir and Gulshan-e-Hadeed. Sanitary conditions and lack of fumigation facilities were found at the restaurants in some of the Malir outlets. The SFA team also raided a bakery ‘Friend Bakers’ and imposed a fine of Rs 20,000 over poor hygiene.  Similarly another roadside restaurant was fined Rs 20,000 for neglecting he...
Post a Comment
Read more

Trump says US generals feel Beirut blast was likely an ‘attack’

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump on Tuesday cast a massive explosion in Beirut as a possible attack, despite statements by Lebanese leaders that it was likely caused by highly explosive material that had been stored at warehouses in the capital for years. “The United States stands ready to assist Lebanon,” Trump said at a White House briefing of Tuesday’s explosion, which killed at least 78 people and injured thousands. “It looks like a terrible attack.” When asked later about his depiction of the explosion, Trump said that he had met with some U.S. generals who feel the blast was not “some kind of a manufacturing explosion type of event.” He told reporters that according to these unnamed generals “they seem to think it was an attack. It was a bomb of some kind.” The Pentagon referred questions to the White House. Two U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said it was unclear where Trump was receiving his information but that initial information did not appear...
Post a Comment
Read more