Facebook’s Civil Rights Audit 8. New Voting/Census Landing Page Facebook has a number of different policies that touch on voting, elections, or census-related content, but not all of the policies live within the same section of the Community Standards. As a result, it can be difficult for civil rights groups (or users generally) who are trying to understand what voting/census-related content is permitted (and what is not) to easily review the relevant policies and understand where the lines are. Both the Auditors and civil rights groups urged Facebook to provide more clarity and make voting/census related policies more accessible. Facebook agreed. Facebook is developing a landing page where all the different policy, product, and operational changes the company has implemented to prevent voter and census suppression are detailed in one place — additionally this page would include clarifications of how the policies fit together and answers to frequently asked questions. D. Political Ads Transparency Updates for Ads About Social Issues, Elections or Politics Since the last report, Facebook has adopted several new transparency measures and made additional improvements to its public Ad Library. These updates are described in more detail below. 1. Policy Update In 2019, Facebook updated its Policy on Social Issues, Elections or Politics to require authorizations in order to run ads related to the census. These ads are included in the Ad Library for transparency. 2. Labeling for Shared Ads Facebook requires ads about social issues, elections or politics to indicate the name of the person or entity responsible for the ad through a disclaimer displayed when the ad is shown. However, when a user subsequently shared or forwarded an ad, neither the “Sponsored” designation nor the disclaimer designation used to follow the ad once it was shared, leaving viewers of the shared ad without notice that the content was originally an ad, or indication of the entity responsible for the ad. Civil rights advocates and others had expressed concern that this loophole could undermine the purpose of the labeling by allowing circumvention of transparency features, and leaving users vulnerable to manipulation. Facebook has now closed this loophole. Ads that are shared will retain their transparency labeling. 3. More Accessible Ad Information and Options to See Fewer Political, Electoral, and Social Issue Ads Facebook has also developed new transparency features for these ads that compile and display relevant information and options all in one place. Since 2018, users have been able to click on political, electoral, or social issue ads to access information about the ad’s reach, who was shown the ad, and the entity responsible for the ad, but now users can additionally see information about why they received the ad — that is, which of the ad targeting categories selected by the advertiser the user fell into. In addition, the same pop-up that appears by clicking on an ad now gives users more control over the ads they see. Users now have the opportunity to opt into seeing fewer ads about social issues, elections or politics. Alternatively, 35