Facebook announced Wednesday that it was expanding its ban on political ads as the social media company continues its preparation for Election Day.
In a news release outlining Facebook’s efforts to help “more Americans register and vote” and protect “the integrity of the election by fighting foreign interference, misinformation and vote suppression,” Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity, said the company would bar any political ads from the platform indefinitely.
“While ads are an important way to express voice, we plan to temporarily stop running all social issue, electoral or political ads in the US after the polls close on November 3, to reduce opportunities for confusion or abuse,” Rosen wrote. “We will notify advertisers when this policy is lifted.”
The announcement builds on several policy updates Facebook has issued in recent weeks. On Oct. 1, Facebook unveiled a ban on all ads that seek to “delegitimize the outcome of an election,” including ads “calling a method of voting inherently fraudulent or corrupt, or using isolated incidents of voter fraud to delegitimize the result of an election,” one project manager wrote.
On Sept. 3, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that all political ads would be taken down the week before Election Day, according to Fast Company. That ban was followed by an update on Sept. 23 that Facebook would not accept ads from President Trump or Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden that claim an early victory before results from mail-in voting were announced.
Wednesday’s update also clarified Facebook’s policy on early victory claims.
“When polls close, we will run a notification at the top of Facebook and Instagram and apply labels to candidates’ posts directing people to the Voting Information Center for more information about the vote-counting process,” Rosen wrote. “But, if a candidate or party declares premature victory before a race is called by major media outlets, we will add more specific information in the notifications that counting is still in progress and no winner has been determined.”
Unlike last week’s update, which only applied to advertisements, Rosen also announced a ban on “content that seeks to intimidate voters,” including calls for poll watching “when those calls use militarized language or suggest that the goal is to intimidate, exert control, or display power over election officials or voters.”
“We’ve also been building a parallel viral content review system to flag posts that may be going viral — no matter what type of content it is — as an additional safety net,” he added.
