Meta launches brand suitability controls and third party verification for feed powered by AI

Using AI to give advertisers more control

We previously announced our commitment to building tools that give advertisers more control over the proximity of their ads to suitable content. AI is one of the driving forces behind these industry-leading solutions. We built a multi-stage AI review system to classify content for advertisers to ensure brand suitability controls are in place. These models will complement our existing technology, which already identifies content that violates or potentially violates our Community Standards and Guidelines. This system learns to classify content in Facebook and Instagram Feeds – not only text but also video and images – to determine if it meets our monetization policies; if it does not, the content is not eligible to have ads appear above or below it. When content is found to be eligible for ad adjacency, the models assign it to a suitability category.

We’ve spent many years working closely with partners in the industry, including the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM), an industry trade organization created to ensure that harmful content is not monetized. We’ve developed controls that align with GARM’s Suitability Framework, which defines high, medium and low risk content. Advertisers can now choose from the following three settings to control the type of monetizable content that can appear above and below an ad:

• Expanded inventory: This is the default setting and shows ads next to content that a) adheres to our Community Standards and b) meets our monetization eligibility criteria.
• Moderate inventory: For advertisers who may want to take a moderately conservative approach, this filter excludes content that may be considered high risk, in alignment with the GARM Brand Suitability Framework.
• Limited inventory: For advertisers who want to take the most conservative approach, this filter excludes content that may be considered both high and medium risk, in alignment with the GARM Suitability Framework.

Later this year, we’ll expand these controls to support additional languages and make them available to advertisers in more countries. We’ll also start testing them on additional placements including Reels, Stories, Video Feeds and other surfaces across Facebook and Instagram as we learn more about advertiser preferences to improve and enhance this technology.

Third-party brand suitability verification is available for Facebook Feed

We’ve also been working with Zefr to test and build an independent AI-powered solution to report the context in which ads appear on Facebook Feed. In early testing, we found through third party verification with Zefr, that less than one percent of content on Facebook Feed falls into the high risk GARM suitability category.

Zefr’s AI product assesses video, image, text and audio to label Feed content based on the GARM suitability standards. The solution allows advertisers to measure, verify and understand the suitability of content near their ads to help them make informed decisions in order to reach their marketing goals.

Meta will be rolling out this verification and measurement solution to additional badged Meta Business Partners this year.

Remaining committed to transparency and accountability

Beyond our suitability controls, we take action on content that violates our Community Standards and Guidelines. Each quarter, we publish the Community Standards Enforcement Report, which shows how we’re doing at enforcing our policies. This report was independently assessed by EY last year and we’re proud to be the first social platform to have our metrics assessed by a third party, demonstrating our commitment to transparency and accountability.

Last November, we received accreditation from the Media Ratings Council (MRC) for our Partner Monetization Policies, Content Monetization Policies and associated content-level brand safety and suitability controls applied to Facebook In-Stream Video. We will be expanding the scope of MRC’s audit to include additional advertiser-facing controls (like the inventory filters for Facebook and Instagram Feeds) as we make them more widely available.

These solutions are important milestones in our ongoing brand safety and suitability efforts. We are committed to giving advertisers more control and transparency and will continue ensuring our work has independent oversight.

For more detail on Meta’s brand safety and suitability methodology, please visit our brand safety and suitability hub.