Alt News Impact: Meta acts against pro-BJP proxy page for violating disclaimer policy in political ads

A day after Alt News had written to Meta about a pro-BJP proxy page named ‘Unfiltered Jammu Kashmir’ running political ads without adhering to relevant disclaimer policies, Meta took down the active ads being run through the page (jaagtajammu.com), adding a notice to all affected ads stating that the content had been removed because the disclaimer did not follow policies for running political advertisements.

Assembly elections are being held in Jammu and Kashmir after nearly a decade. With political parties leaving no stone unturned to woo voters, social media advertising is playing a crucial role in electioneering. And proxy pages, often concealing their true identity, are pushing the agendas of particular political parties. These proxy pages frequently run ads that target rival parties in ways official party pages cannot, often including problematic content such as misinformation, propaganda, inflammatory messages, glorification of violence or targeting specific communities. In the process, they also violate the Model Code of Conduct. Alt News has repeatedly highlighted these violations by such proxy pages on Facebook.

‘Unfiltered Jammu Kashmir’, a proxy page promoting the BJP, has been actively running ads on Facebook and Instagram in Jammu and Kashmir. These ads promote the BJP and target rival political parties and their leaders. In the last 30 days, this page has spent over Rs. 75 lakh on these platforms, placing it among the top five spenders on political advertising in India in the said period.

According to Meta’s political advertisement policy, any page running ads related to social issues, elections, or politics on Facebook or Instagram must include an approved disclaimer. This disclaimer must provide accurate information about the individual or organization funding the ads, ensuring transparency. The disclaimer is meant to offer clarity on who is responsible for the ads.

While monitoring Meta’s ad library, Alt News discovered that the ‘Unfiltered Jammu Kashmir’ page was running political ads through a website called jaagtajammu.com. Upon investigating the details provided in the page’s disclaimer, Alt News found that it did not meet Meta’s advertising standards.

Meta’s policy clearly mandates that disclaimers must:

• Accurately represent the name of the entity or person responsible for the ad
• Have accurate, valid information at all times

However, upon examining the details in the ‘Unfiltered Jammu Kashmir’ disclaimer, it was found that three primary details—the website, email, and phone number—were all invalid:

• Defunct website: The website (jaagtajammu.com) referenced in the disclaimer was not functioning.
• Incorrect email: Attempts to contact the email address provided in the disclaimer resulted in bounce-back messages, indicating that the email was not valid.
• Inactive phone number: The mobile number provided in the disclaimer was found to be invalid upon contact attempts.

Because the website and contact details were inactive, it was impossible to verify the entity responsible for these ads. This lack of transparency undermines the purpose of Meta’s disclaimer policy, which is designed to ensure accountability and openness.

Given the gravity of these violations, particularly during an election period, Alt News submitted a detailed report to Meta, Facebook and Instagram’s parent company, on September 25. Meta responded the next day, confirming that the disclaimer violated its political advertising policy. As a result, Meta removed the active ads being run through the ‘Unfiltered Jammu Kashmir’ page (jaagtajammu.com), adding a notice to all affected ads stating: “This content has been removed because the disclaimer did not follow our policy for ads about social issues, elections, or politics.”

Alt News has previously reported on several instances where political advertisers failed to comply with Meta’s policy. here are the links to some of these stories:

• Exclusive: Meta allowed advertisement glorifying violence, ad shows live shooting
• Exclusive: How Meta allowed policy violations by proxy pages running pro-BJP ads
• BJP way ahead of others in political ad spending on Meta; proxy pages spent more than official ones
• Investigation: How Facebook page promoting Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel violated EC norms in 2022 state polls
• Meta deletes BJP-linked ‘Nam Namo – ನಮ್ ನಮೋ’ page on Facebook after EC-norm violation complaint

However, enforcement of Meta’s policies related to political advertisement remains inconsistent resulting in repeated violations. Pages often resume running political ads by making superficial changes to disclaimers. In this case, within hours of the removal of the page’s ads and disclaimer, Meta approved a new disclaimer for the ‘Unfiltered Jammu Kashmir’ page, allowing it to restart political ad campaigns on Facebook and Instagram as of September 26.

To sum up, the instance of the Facebook proxy page ‘Unfiltered Jammu Kashmir’ is a prime example of how such pages take advantage of Meta’s unwillingness/inabilty to implement its policies and their loopholes, and run ads that promote problematic content, including the glorification of violence and targeting of specific communities. The use of vague or incorrect information in disclaimers raises serious concerns about the effectiveness of Meta’s policies and the need for stronger enforcement to ensure accountability and transparency in political advertising.