Today, we're launching our new five-year strategy, AI-assisted collective ad regulation, with ambitious targets to make sure all ads are responsible and people are protected from being misled, harmed or offended by them. The strategy will be launched at our ‘Greenspeaking with confidence’ online event on 28 November 2023.
We have made significant progress over the last five years in proactively regulating ads across all media, particularly online. We’re increasingly using AI to identify ads which may be problematic and to support our compliance work; we successfully trialled a world-first pilot scheme focused on platform and intermediary transparency and accountability; and we’ve been at the global forefront of green claims’ regulation.
This new strategy, which will take us from 2024-2028, responds to the challenges of effectively regulating advertising in our continually evolving media landscape.
Over the next five years, we’ll ensure we invest more in our preventative and proactive work than our reactive complaints casework. We will resolve investigations quicker, focus on preventing irresponsible ads appearing in the first place and deliver ongoing, agile and visible enforcement, including through mechanisms developed with platforms and intermediaries.
We will continue to invest in AI to support our regulation. We’re on course to process more than three million ads through our Active Ad Monitoring system in 2023 – but we plan to scale this up significantly, enabling us to take down more irresponsible ads in high priority areas, protecting everyone, but particularly vulnerable people, from misleading, harmful or offensive ads. Importantly, the system will also allow us to provide more and better reporting on areas where there is high compliance in online ads, including after our interventions.
Highlights of the strategy include:
People: we will represent everyone, while prioritising the protection of the most vulnerable, and we will recruit and retain the best people from both diverse backgrounds and a wider geographical area.
Planet: We will run our climate change and the environment project throughout the strategy period and we will continue to implement our own Net Zero plan.
Online: We will scale-up our AI-based Active Ad Monitoring system to swiftly act against irresponsible online ads and report on compliant ads. We will champion how we think the
regulatory framework for online ads should develop, bringing greater transparency and broader accountability to platforms and intermediaries; and we will work with other statutory
regulators and play our part in tackling fraudulent online ads.
Awareness and buy-in: We will increase public, opinion-former and industry awareness of, and trust in, our ad regulation across all media.
Collective ad regulation: We will work with Governments and statutory regulators to ensure ad regulation is effective; and we will continue engagement across national borders through membership of EASA and ICAS.
Operational transformation: We will prioritise proactive projects on ad-related issues that cause the most detriment to people, we will resolve investigations quicker, we will prevent irresponsible ads appearing in the first place and we will deliver ongoing, agile and visible enforcement.
Read our new strategy: AI-assisted collective ad regulation.
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