Facebook and Instagram to control political advertisements in Mexico.

Both platforms seek to have greater control to prevent their users from being saturated with news about the upcoming elections.

MEXICO CITY (Reforma) – Gradually, Facebook and Instagram users in Mexico will have greater control that will allow them to see fewer ads on electoral and political topics on these social networks, including the guidelines of candidates, parties, and political figures.

This tool joins other measures the company has implemented in the country ahead of the upcoming elections. Among those, the transparency tool for political and electoral ads and the Ads Library, which stores for seven years the information on who is responsible for them, how much was paid for them, and the audience to which they were directed.

To enable control over the election and political ads, users must visit the ad preferences under “Settings,” select “Add Topics,” and then choose “See Less” under the election and political category. This control may also be enabled in the settings options that will appear in these types of ads.

This launch is part of a global rollout to more than 90 countries, including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, and Ecuador in Latin America. It was first operated in 2020 in the United States.

“We’re giving people the power to decide what kind of ads they want to see on Facebook and Instagram through this tool, giving them more control over their experience on the platforms,” Marcos Tourinho, leader of the Latin America elections team at Facebook, explained in a statement.

“The feature stems from our conversations with users, activists, and organizations around the world, who expressed to us that people want to have more control over the display of ads about electoral processes and know more about who is posting such content.”

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