Meta announced Monday it is extending its ban on new ads about social issues, elections or politics generally to an unspecified time later this week—a decision that came just one day before the ban was set to expire on Election Day.
Meta bans new political or issue-based ads in the week leading up to Election Day because “there may ... [+]
Meta said the restriction period for new ads related to the three topics “is being extended until later this week” in an update posted to the policy page Monday.
The policy—which prevents any new political ads during the final week before the general election—was first put in place in 2020 as a way to “recognize there may not be enough time to contest new claims made in ads” in the final days before an election.
Meta announced on Sept. 30 the policy would be in place this year, and originally said the ban on new ads—meaning they hadn’t served at least one impression—would run from 12:01 a.m. PDT on Oct. 29 through 11:59 p.m. PST on Tuesday.
Forbes has reached out to Meta for more information on the extension.
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The policy was first put in place during the 2020 presidential election, with CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying at the time that while he believes “the best antidote to bad speech is more speech,” there wouldn’t be enough time before the election to contest new claims made by either side. Political and issue-based ads that had already run were still allowed because they would have already been published, allowing “fact-checkers and journalists (to) scrutinize them.” When the policy first went into effect in late October 2020 it faced struggles, with some political advertisers saying ads were being incorrectly blocked or complaining there were still misleading posts that broke rules, The Washington Post reported. CNBC reported some advertisers limited ad spending on Facebook in the 2022 election cycle after the ban was implemented again. This year from Oct. 26 to Nov. 1, pages supporting both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have spent millions of dollars on advertising on Meta platforms, according to Meta’s advertising data.
Google is also blocking election ads, but only after the last polls close Tuesday. U.S. election ads and ads referring to the processes or outcomes of the election will not be allowed, though “public information campaign ads run by state or federal government bodies responsible for administering election processes” are allowed. Google did not specify when its ban will end.