Humans will vet political ads on Facebook (FB)

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Facebook will begin subjecting ads targeted based on social issues, politics, religion, and ethnicity to human review, according to Axios.

This is a step up in oversight for the ad-buying process of Facebook, as most ads on the platform are purchased and delivered through automated processes.

Facebook is taking steps to ensure the human review of ads will be feasible — it recently announced it would hire 1,000 more employees to review ads over the next year. These ad reviewers are in addition to the current roughly 4,500 content moderators Facebook employs, and the 3,000 content moderators it announced plans to bring on back in May.

The company's planned effort to manually review more ads and clean up its ad ecosystem reflects the premium-ification of digital ad inventory. In taking this approach, Facebook is better poised to cater to increasing demand among brands and users for premium ad environments, which are typically found on traditional TV.

Here are some of the potential benefits of this latest move:

It could help drive US political ad spend to the platform. If the company can develop a reputation for touting premium ads that have been thoroughly vetted, it may make ad space on the platform more valuable to politicians looking to share their message. US political campaigns likely spent a total of $300 million on Facebook ads during the past election cycle, according to Nomura analysts cited by Reuters. With its new review process, that figure could meaningfully increase next time around.
It also lowers the chances of another high-profile ad serving blunder. Facebook announced in September that it discovered Russian-linked accounts bought nearly 3,000 advertisements focused on divisive political, racial, and religious issues for $100,000. These ads were viewed by roughly 10 million people. The human review process gives Facebook greater oversight to prevent something like this from occurring again, though criticisms of censorship could become a problem if many political advertisers find their ads blocked.
The company may be better positioned to comply with future regulations around political ads online. The Federal Election Commission (FEC) is working on a bill that would heighten the disclosure requirements of digital political ads, according to Axios. Additionally, officials within the FEC are considering banning political ads from being sold programmatically.

Digital trust is the confidence people have in a platform’s ability to protect and promote the interests of its users.

The Digital Trust Report, a brand new report from BI Intelligence, examines consumers’ perception of major social platforms. It rates Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, and LinkedIn on security, community, user experience, and content authenticity and shareability. These insights help brands and marketers make informed decisions about where to spend their marketing and branding dollars.

All of the information in this survey comes from our proprietary BI Insiders panel, made up of more than 15,000 specially selected and recruited Business Insider readers. This panel is designed to be a leading indicator of what’s next in digital. The panelists are business and tech savvy, they have buying power, and they’re highly engaged. The survey revealed some fascinating insights into how millennials and decision makers view today’s most popular social media platforms.

Here are some key takeaways from the report:

Digital trust has been shaken by a proliferation of malicious content and data breaches, which has significant consequences for brands that use these platforms.
The top platform won by a huge margin on most attributes. Content on this platform is more likely to be viewed as forthright and honest, which increases the persuasiveness of ads and marketing messages that appear alongside it. This also creates ideal conditions for thought leadership and branded and sponsored content to flourish.
The second-ranked platform was bolstered by users' confidence sharing content they find there. Users were most apt to share content they found there, which, together with its massive audience and high engagement, makes it the right platform to maximize reach.
The social platform that finished dead last did so because of its abusive comments section and extremely annoying ads. Still, this hasn’t dissuaded people from visiting, as evidenced by the time spent monthly and massive user base. This platform also resonates more with older generations.

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