Facebook's new rules for political and social issues advertisers

Advertisers pushing social issues messages will soon be required to put disclaimers on their ads and go through an authorisation process.

The changes, which come into effect from June 29, are an extension of rules brought in last August which required advertisers running political or electoral ads to include a "paid for by" disclaimer.

In a blog post on Friday, Facebook head of public policy Australia Josh Machin said those rules currently applied to anyone publishing or modifying ads that reference political figures, parties or elections.

"From June 29, these requirements will also apply to advertisers that choose to run social issue ads that seek to influence public opinion through discussion, debate or advocacy for or against important topics, such as civil and social rights, crime, environmental politics, education or immigration," he said.

"Any political, electoral or social issue ads on Facebook that do not have the correct authorisation or disclaimers will be removed from the platform."

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Facebook introduced a feature earlier this year which allowed users to opt out of seeing ads with the "paid for by" disclaimer.

"These additional transparency features for people on Facebook and Instagram and mandatory requirements for advertisers will help promote safe and healthy debate on influential topics, so that people can better understand who's trying to influence them with ads," Mr Machin said.