Meta approved ads in India that called for violence and spread election conspiracy theories

Meta's advertising policies are once again in the spotlight as a watchdog group says the company approved more than a dozen "highly inflammatory" ads that broke its rules. The ads targeted Indian audiences and contained disinformation, calls for violence and conspiracy theories about the upcoming elections. The ads are detailed in a new report from Ekō, a nonprofit watchdog organization. The group says it submitted the ads as a "stress test" of Meta's company's advertising systems, but that the spots "were created based upon real hate speech and disinformation prevalent in India." In all, the group was able to get 14 of 22 ads approved through Meta's company's advertising tools even though all of them should have been rejected for breaking the company's rules.