U.S. Politicians Can Now Pay For Sponsored Content on Facebook

  • AUTHOR: fiona
  • POSTED ON: February 19, 2020

Mark Zuckerberg might have found himself in hot water again… but this time, he’s unabashed about it. 

Source: The Express Tribune 

With the US election season trudging forward, Facebook has announced another controversial news update. According to the statement, Facebook will now allow all politicians to pay for sponsored content on the platform. This information was released by Reuters on Friday.

Facebook has always been under the radar due to many of its problematic features, and it seems as if Mark Zuckerberg is now simply used to the drama. Previously, he was accused of invading the personal lives of its users and was asked to present himself in the court and defend the facial recognition feature of Facebook.

Basically, the legal dispute that started in 2015 and went on forever was withheld to question the account on which Facebook scanned the tagged photos of its users. Apart from this, Facebook has been charged with the allegations that it uses the platform to manipulate its users. 

Source: The New York Times 

Anyway, now that those controversies are resolved, Zuckerberg is ready for more. Clearly, the man has a fetish for public humiliation as he’s always finding himself amidst a political storm.

The recently introduced feature that allows US politicians to sell their ideologies and beliefs to Facebook users is extremely exploitative. As a result, politicians will have the power to utilize groups and pages to market their own content.

Mike Bloomberg will be up as the democratic candidate in the 2020’s presidential elections. He’s the one who started using social media as a political tool and paid several Instagram accounts to campaign for him.

Source: The Verge 

Additionally, Facebook can now detect political posts far more conveniently. However, to use Facebook for their political agendas, politicians have to seek approval of Facebook first.

But one thing has to be cleared. Facebook doesn’t capitalize on the sponsored content. Unlike advertisements, the capital goes to the person or organization that originally posts the content.

So far, Bloomberg has spent millions on advertising and sponsoring content, which is why it wouldn’t be surprising to find his campaign messages flooded on Facebook. Anyway, let’s see what else the upcoming election season has in store for us.

Updated February 19, 2020
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