How To Find Out Which Political Label Facebook Has Given You

Did you know that every time you like or share a post or a page on Facebook, the social media network is using your choices to collect data on what it thinks your political views are?

In fact, it even has you labeled under a certain category, and in this video we’re going to tell you exactly how to find out what that category is.

Conservative, Moderate or Liberal? Those are the three options Facebook uses, and if you’ve used the social media giant for awhile, there’s a good chance it thinks it has you figured out.

How do you find out which label Facebook has given you? Start by logging into your account on the desktop version of Facebook. Then go to facebook.com/ads/preferences. Click on the “more” tab and then click on the “Lifestyle and Culture” tab. Then click “see more” and scroll down to the box that is labeled “US Politics.” The word beneath it in parentheses is the political label Facebook has given you.

How does Facebook create this label? It could be as simple as you “liking” a conservative politician’s page or following a conservative media outlet. Or it it could be as tricky as you “liking” a page that has nothing to do with politics, such as Target or Starbucks, and if the majority of their followers have been labeled as liberals, then you might be labeled as one too.

Why should you care? Facebook is using the label it creates for you to determine which ads show up in your newsfeed. And you might think, “I’m a diehard liberal, and I am perfectly fine with only liberal political ads showing up in my newsfeed,” but the problem with that logic is that by only seeing ads that are related to your political views, you are putting yourself in a bubble that makes you even more susceptible to becoming part of the false “left vs. right” narrative.

There’s also the chance that Facebook has given you the wrong label. With neoconservatism running rampant on the right and social justice warriors becoming more common on the left, few people are just strictly just “liberal” and “conservative,” and it raises the question, do we really want Facebook being the judge of our political affiliation?

Follow Rachel Blevins on Facebook and Twitter.