In response to a petition in the Bombay HC, Facebook and Google have submitted that they will make changes (more on these changes below*) to their advertising policy ahead of the Lok Sabha elections 2019, as reported by LiveLaw. Google and Facebook’s affidavits were submitted before the bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and Justice NM Jamdar. The petition was filed by Sagar Suryawanshi from Pune seeking direction to the Election Commission of India (ECI) to prohibit everyone (it is unclear if the petition refers to only online platforms or ‘everyone’) from posting sponsored political ads during the 48-hour ‘silent period’. Apart from the ECI, the other respondents in the case are the Union of India, MeitY, Google and YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. *While the case was filed in November last year, Facebook and Google have announced changes to their political advertising policy to increase election transparency in the last two months. The companies' responses to the court overlap with their newly-released policies in many ways. Facebook's, Google's steps for political ad transparency Per LiveLaw, Facebook’s affidavit said: It is ‘voluntarily’ launching tools, on 21 February, to increase transparency of political ads Only verified advertisers who have provided their identity, location, and information of who placed the ad are allowed to run ads Political ads will contain disclosures including who paid for the ad For disclaimers under ads, "authorized advertisers can identify themselves, a page they run, or another organisation [can be] named, additional credentials like a phone number, email, website,…
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