Meta Enforces Transparency for AI-Altered Political Content in Canada
Ottawa, Canada, 21st March 2025 – Meta Platforms is taking a significant step in improving transparency by requiring political advertisers to disclose the use of AI when creating or digitally altering ads. The policy is intended to prevent misinformation ahead of Canada’s federal elections.
Advertisers that include photorealistic images, videos, and realistic audio that has been digitally created or altered will be required to provide their disclaimers. This includes showing real people saying or doing things that they did not say or do, as well as realistic portrayals of phenomena that did not occur.
In November last year, Meta expanded its ban on new political advertisement running after the US elections due to the rampant misinformation in the previous presidential elections. Also, in 2023, Meta restricted political advertisers and campaigners in other regulated industries from using its newly introduced generative AI advertising tools.
Earlier this year, Meta, facing pressure from conservative groups, withdrew its fact-checking programs, which was accompanied by the loosening of restrictions on debates about highly sensitive issues such as immigration and gender identity. Such moves have heralded a shift in Meta’s focus towards political content.
Meta’s new policy enables users to mark the images, videos, or audios shared as AI-generated to make it easier for the public to identify the use of AI in videos and images shared on the platform.
This allows the website to mark such type of information and therefore assist people in recognizing AI modified content. Meta’s proactive position shows that they are protecting the democratic processes by ensuring that voters are not misled with the political content.
Whether this policy is effective is subject to how advertisers manipulate the system and how Meta enforces it. With AI becoming more advanced and readily available, the responsibility from both the platform and its users is even greater in determining the legitimacy of the digital campaigning materials.
In applying these policies, Meta hopes to curb the effects that AI created content has on political advertising and create a more informed and transparent electoral environment in Canada.
Read Latest Stories:
NVIDIA & xAI Join BlackRock & Microsoft in $30 Billion AI Infra Partnership
Oracle Launches AI Agent Studio to Simplify Enterprise Automation
Finastra and IBM’s AI-Powered Lending Service Could Change Banking Forever
