Hats, jewellery, coffee: The odd ads popping up on Facebook's 'political' list

Hats, jewellery, coffee: The odd ads popping up on Facebook's 'political' list

Dozens of adverts for hats, jewellery, clothing and other things with no apparent political message whatsoever have been added to Facebook's new library of UK political ads.

Last month, Facebook announced the creation of a database that lists UK political adverts on the platform along with the names of the people who paid for them.

At the moment, inclusion in the database is voluntary, but the company hopes to apply the rules to all political advertisers in the near future and require them to sign up.

The initiative came in response to political pressure the company has faced over allegations of data misuse by Cambridge Analytica and the role the social media giant played in the 2016 US presidential election and the UK's EU referendum.

Similar libraries are already available in the US and in Brazil.

Hats, beauty treatments, and jewellery

Among more than 1,200 UK ads listed in the database, BBC Trending spotted at least 26 that are for commercial companies and have no readily apparent political agenda.

They include a hat seller, a fashion boutique, a magazine, a coffee company, an online jewellery store, and others.