Meta is revealing how political and election ads are targeted on Facebook. Meta said in an update that it is making information about how political and social issue ads are targeted.
The most detailed information will be given to researchers who are part of the company's FORT program.
During the three-month period before the 2020 election, the data was only available for political ads. Researchers will be able to access all social issue, electoral and political ads since August 2020.
Meta is making a limited amount of political ad-targeting data available to the public. The July update will allow anyone to see more general information about how specific Facebook Pages are targeting their ads.
Questions about how political ads are targeted on Facebook have been a thorn in the company's side. Understanding how election and political ads are targeted is more important than having a record of the people behind each ad, according to researchers. Privacy concerns have made Meta resist making targeting data available.
Groups are still trying to study the issue on their own. A team at New York University created a browser extension to help them understand how political ads are targeted on Facebook. They used the data to uncover flaws in the Ad Library. Meta accused the team of disabling their accounts and also cutting off their ability to use the company's CrowdTangle tool to study misinformation.
Making more detailed targeting information available through FORT may not go as far as some researchers would like, but it at least offers one avenue where the data is available. There is likely to be a lot of interest in learning more about how political ads are spread on Facebook.
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