Snapchat to fact-check political ads, CEO Evan Spiegel announces
Snapchat is to start fact-checking political ads, the social media giant’s CEO has said ahead of the General Election.
Evan Spiegel, the company’s 29-year-old founder, said he would not let “misinformation appear” in paid ads on the platform.
The announcement comes as social networks are facing increasing scrutiny over how they handle political advertising.
Facebook has recently said it will not fact-check political ads as it did not want to “referee” political arguments.
Meanwhile, Twitter announced last month that it was stopping political adverts altogether, with its CEO Jack Dorsey arguing the reach of a political message should be “earned not bought”.
Mr Spiegel announced Snapchat’s change of policy in an interview on the US broadcaster CNBC, saying he wanted to “create a place” where young people could engage with politics.
"I think what we try to do is create a place for political ads on our platform,” said Mr Spiegel. "Especially because we reach so many young people and first-time voters we want them to be able to engage with the political conversation. But we don’t allow things like misinformation to appear in that advertising.”
Figures released by Snapchat show that the social media site, which is particularly popular with under 24s, is showing more political adverts in the UK. In 2018, the site hosted £35,000 worth of political ads from organisations including the Labour Party and Amnesty International. This year more than £90,000 has already been spent on Snapchat political ads, with government departments and local councils among the largest spenders.
Mr Spiegel’s decision stands in stark contrast to Facebook’s stance on political adverts.
In September, Facebook announced it will not fact-check politicians in the same way it does other users, unless their posts are deemed to be inciting violence
Last month, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg, defended the decision saying: “We don't fact-check political ads," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a wide-ranging speech at Georgetown University in mid-October.
“We don't do this to help politicians, but because we think people should be able to see for themselves what politicians are saying. And if content is newsworthy, we also won't take it down even if it would otherwise conflict with many of our standards.”
