With election𓂃s drawing closer, campaigning on social media platform Facebook is also picking up pace with political parties and their supporters spending well over Rs 10 crore on advertisements in February-March this yea🐲r.
According to Facebook's Ad Library Report, there were 51,810 political ad💃s with a total spending of more than Rs 10.32 crore between February and March 30 this year, with a major chunk coming in from BJP and its supporters.
Till the previous week (ending March 23), the number of such ads was 4൩1,974, while the total spending was Rs 8.58 crore.
Facebook said these ads were related to politics and issues of national 🃏importance.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and its supporters continued to corner a bulk of ad s🍃pends with 'Bharat Ke Mann Ki Baat' page continuing to be the top spender with well over 3,700 ads and pumping in more than Rs 2.23 crore (under two categories).
The BJP had about 1,100 ads and spent over Rs 36.2 lakh, while other pages like 'My First Vote for🧔 Modi' and 'Nation with NaMo' also had large spending.
Compared to this, the Indian National Congress page had 410 ads and ꧅its ad spend was Rs 5.91 lakh in the February to March 30 period, as per the data. Biju Janata♈ Dal had a spending of Rs 8.56 lakh, Telegu Desam Party (TDP) Rs 1.58 lakh and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) Rs 58,355 in the said timeframe.
In February, Facebook had said political advertisements on its platform will carry a 'disclaimer' offering details about those responsible for ꧟running the ad as the social media giant looks to bring transparency into political ads ahead of elections in India.
This 💮was done to give people more information about who is responsible for the ads they see.
With en꧑suing general elections, the Indian government had warned social media platforms of strong action if any attempt wasಞ made to influence the country's electoral process through undesirable means.
Over the past few months, social media players ꦫlike Facebook, Twitter and Google have promised to infuse more transparency into political advertisements on their platform and have since announced a slew of measures as part of election integri♊ty efforts.
Facebook, which has over 200 m🦩illion users in India, has stated that it is committed to creating a new standard of transparency and authentಞicity for political advertising on its platform and Instagram.
(PTI)
