Facebook and Google face scrutiny from ad execs at Cannes

This year as executives from the world’s biggest brands and ad agencies gathered on the French Riveria for the annual Cannes Lions advertising festival, Facebook and Google, which control the majority of all digital advertising, are facing unprecedented scrutiny.

Governments around the world are looking to hold these two giants — called the ‘digital duopoly’ — accountable for the content posted on their platforms and for the way they protect users data.

The other question, posed by a number of Democratic presidential candidates: Should Facebook and Google should be broken up? These potential regulatory challenges come as executives from around the world meet to discuss where to invest the $600 billion expected to be spent on advertising worldwide this year.

The largest companies in the industry teamed up to announce a new “Alliance for Responsible Content” at this year’s festival. Sixteen of the world’s largest advertisers along with the ad agencies and tech platforms — Facebook, Twitter,and Google — are working to create standards for what’s considered appropriate content and expectations of how they’ll prevent offensive and inappropriate content from surfacing.

This…