Elizabeth Warren @ewarren Refusing to catalogue paid political ads because the Bloomberg campaign

[BeckyDem]

9. Bloomberg's meme spree prompts changes in Facebook, Instagram rules

Facebook won't treat the sponsored content in exactly the same way it treats political ads.



By NANCY SCOLA

02/14/2020 05:48 PM EST

Facebook


Presidential contender Mike Bloomberg's spree of often-surreal social media memes is having one concrete impact — it prompted Facebook to make another change Friday in its rules for paid political content.

From now on, Facebook and its Instagram subsidiary will allow "branded content" from political candidates — a practice in which a campaign pays so-called influencers to place supportive posts on their accounts. Previously, a Facebook spokesperson said, the platforms had banned such content from politicians by default.

Under the new rules, the content will have to be clearly marked as sponsored.

The spokesperson said in a statement that the rule change had been under consideration for some time, with meme posts gaining traction as a campaign tool, and with both political campaigns and government agencies inquiring about the company's policies on their use. Bloomberg drew new attention to the issue this week after paying influential Instagram personalities to post a series of posts meant to look as if the Democratic contender were sending oddball direct messages to the influencer, such as "I put Lamborghini doors on the Escalade."

The New York Times reported Thursday that the Bloomberg campaign is working with a company called Meme 2020 to produce sponsored posts to run on third-party accounts. They bore the disclaimer: "yes this is really #sponsored by @mikebloomberg.”

"After hearing from multiple campaigns, we agree that there’s a place for branded content in political discussion on our platforms," the Facebook spokesperson said. "We’re allowing US-based political candidates to work with creators to run this content, provided the political candidates are authorized and the creators disclose any paid partnerships through our branded content tools.”

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/02/14/bloomberg-meme-changes-facebook-instagram-115333