Google takes new measures to increase transparency on political ads
San Francisco, Aug 16 :Google took a new move Wednesday to increase transparency on political ads on its platform by releasing an online library of US political ads and a report on details of ad-expenditure ahead of the mid-term US elections in November this year.
Google said the addition of the political advertising report and the new Ad Library are new transparency features aimed at implementing new requirements for any advertiser purchasing election ads on Google in the US, Xinhua reported.
Under the new mechanism, political advertisers now have to provide a government-issued ID and other key information that confirms they are a US citizen or lawful permanent resident in the country.
The measures are apparently an updated response to disputes on social media networks that Russia had been involved in U.S. presidential elections in 2016, an allegation that has been rejected repeatedly by Moscow.
Google is running a searchable archive Wednesday where people can find all data and details about political ads via its Search engine and YouTube, including promotions for a candidate for a federal elected office or a sitting official.
The library allows users to search who pays for the ads, the costs in deploying the advertising and how long the ads will be running, plus the number of page views.
The US tech giant has agreed to give the public and third parties direct access to the archive through Google Cloud's BigQuery, where anyone can write code and run their own unique queries on this data set.
"Researchers, political watchdog groups and private citizens can use our data set to develop charts, graphs, tables or other visualizations of political advertising on Google Ads services," said Michee Smith, the product lead on the company's transparency report.
"With the Transparency Report, we hope this provides unprecedented, data-driven insights into election ads on our platform," Google said.
With the the 2018 midterm elections approaching, Google said its new tools aim to help protect political campaigns, provide voters with accurate information, and increase transparency across its platforms.
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ED summons AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan again on Apr 29
New Delhi, Apr 27: AAP MLA Amanatullah Khan has been asked by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) to depose again next week in a money laundering case linked to alleged irregularities in the Delhi Waqf Board during his chairmanship, officials sources said on Saturday.
The MLA has been asked to appear on April 29 and continue with the recording of his statement under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA), the sources said.
The 50-year-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) legislator from the Okhla assembly seat was questioned by the central agency for about 13 hours last week.
In a related development, a Delhi court on Saturday granted bail to Khan in this money laundering case for allegedly evading its earlier summons issued to him in the case.
Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate (ACMM) Divya Malhotra granted bail to Khan on a personal bond of Rs 15,000 and one surety of like amount after he appeared before the court.
AAP leader and Delhi Cabinet Minister Atishi had earlier said that the ED case against Khan was "fake" and the party stood by its legislator.
The first deposition of Khan on April 18 came after the Supreme Court refused to entertain his anticipatory bail application in this case. The apex court had directed him to join the investigation.
Speaking to reporters before entering the ED office that day, Khan had claimed that he followed the rules when he was the chairman of the Waqf Board and did everything after taking the legal opinion and as per the new Act (for the board) that came in 2013.
The money laundering case against Khan and his alleged associates stems from a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) FIR and three Delhi Police complaints.
The ED, which had conducted raids on his premises, has claimed that Khan acquired "huge proceeds of crime" in cash through illegal recruitment of staff in the Delhi Waqf Board and invested those to purchase immovable assets in the name of his associates.
The agency had alleged in a statement that "illegal recruitment" of staff took place in the Waqf Board and "illegal personal gains" were made by unfairly leasing the Waqf Board properties during Khan's chairmanship (2018-2022).
