Facebook will have stricter ad rules in countries with elections in 2019

Facebook is set to make some of its political advertising rules stricter for countries that will hold important votes in 2019, reported Reuters on Wednesday.

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The social media giant wants to avoid hackers or malicious users from spreading fake news and interfering in elections and votes in India, Nigeria, Ukraine and the European Union.

Last year, the company was forced to introduce new guidelines for advertising on its platform after it saw itself involved in the Cambridge Analytica scandal where US and UK citizens were influenced in the 2016 US general elections and Brexit referendum, respectively. Users received fake propaganda on Facebook posts and had their data shared with third parties without their consent.

According to Reuters sources, beginning on Wednesday in Nigeria, only advertisers located in the country will be able to run electoral ads. The social media platform will do the same in Ukraine in February.

Facebook already implemented new advertising rules for political content at the end of 2018. Facebook said it would store political adverts in a public ad library for seven years after they run as well as who they were targeted at.