YouTube must do better!

Our recent investigation with Global Witness reveals that YouTube is approving ads with disinformation which can fuel chaos as India goes to the polls.

#IndiaElections2024
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🚨Earlier today, 11 civil society organisations wrote to the Election Commission of India, expressing their collective concerns over the integrity of the #Elections2024 & urging them to uphold the principles of free & fair elections against the many challenges it faces. 1/7
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A loophole in Meta's policies on advertiser disclaimer is allowing an infestation of surrogate advertisements on its platforms. Surrogate ads targeting BJP opponents now dominate FB's political ads.

boomlive.in/news/bjp-congr…

THREAD : Investigating the ruling party BJP's propaganda factory. A network of 23 websites hosted on same IP Address & linked facebook pages working as pseudo-entities pushing propaganda Ads by spending crores of money on Facebook, attacking non-BJP parties & leaders. +

Read the English version of the detailed article. altnews.in/meta-allowed-a…

In response to our inquiries, a Meta spokesperson informed us that they reviewed the content flagged by Alt News found it to be in violation of Meta’s standards, and took action accordingly. Now these contents have been removed by Meta. +

In an email to Meta, we inquired why their moderation system failed in this case. Furthermore, we asked them how they plan to thwart attempts to weaponize their platforms during this election season and what actions would be taken against pages violating Meta platform rules. +

It is pertinent for platforms like Meta to show their commitment towards ensuring a responsible and safe online space by taking prompt action against content that violates their community standards. +

exemplifying their failure during this sensitive, high-stakes election period.

Meta's negligence in enforcing its policies reaffirms the importance of accountability by platforms. As elections approach, the role of digital governance is becoming increasingly important. +

This ad raises serious questions about Meta’s ability to effectively enforce its policies. With over 30 lakh views, the continued presence of these controversial ads on the platform highlights the disparity between Meta’s policy and practice +

Upon checking the Meta ad library, we found that one of these ads running on Instagram was flagged and removed by Meta on 9 March. At the same time, another version of the same ad continued to run on Instagram till 16 March, garnering over 10 lakh 45 thousand views. +

Despite the clear violation of Meta's advertising standards, two versions of this advertisement ran uninterrupted on Facebook from 8 March to 15 March, garnering more than 20 lakh views. +

Meta's policies explicitly prohibit content that glorifies violence. The Meta advertising standard states that advertisements must not contain shocking, sensational, excessively violent content or graphic crime scenes. (Due to the excessive violence, the video has been blurred) +

to the Basirhat court, with the text 'Criminal in West Bengal'. The advertisement glorifies violence, saying that Shahjahan should get the same treatment as Atiq Ahmed. +

The upper half of the ad displays a video of the attack on Atiq Ahmed which caused his death with the text 'Criminals in UP'. The lower half of the ad displays a video of Shahjahan Sheikh, the main accused in the violence in Sandeshkhali, West Bengal, arrested and brought +

The 'MemeXpress' page ran 4 political ads on FB & IG glorifying the on-camera murder of Atiq Ahmed, a one-time MP and a five-time MLA accused in multiple cases. The ad features his live murder video with caption 'बस एक बुलडोजर चाहिए बंगाल में, सारे अकडू शाहजहां सीधे हो जायेंगे' +

We found a BJP proxy page named “MemeXpress”, created on 12 December 2023. In such a short period, this page has run more than 400 political ads and spent over Rs 1.1 crore on political ads to target opposition parties and promote the BJP. +

These proxy pages have spent crores of rupees over the past several months. In fact, they have spent more money than the official BJP pages. Hiding their real identities, they work for political parties and publish ads that can't be published through official channels. +

Meta Ad Library data shows that the BJP has spent more on political ads than any other party. The BJP runs several controversial proxy pages with divisive ads targeting opposition parties and often promoting controversial narratives. +

THREAD : Meta allowed the ruling party BJP's proxy page on Facebook and Instagram to run political ads that target political opponents by glorifying murder. There are several instances where Meta has failed to enforce its policies. (1/n)