Facebook updated its advertising policy on Wednesday and announced additional prohibitions on advertisements about the upcoming election and the census.
The change is yet another update to the policy Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Sept. 3 that banned any political ads from appearing on the social media platform the week before Election Day, according to Fast Company.
The policy was followed by a Sept. 23 update when Facebook said it would not accept any ads from President Trump or Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden claiming victory before the results of the election are finalized, which Senate Democrats say could be days after Election Day because of mail-in ballots.
Rob Leathern, the director of product management at Facebook, clarified the updated policy on Twitter.
“Last week we said we’d prohibit ads that make premature declarations of victory. We also won’t allow ads with content that seeks to delegitimize the outcome of an election,” Leathern tweeted. “For example, this would include calling a method of voting inherently fraudulent or corrupt, or using isolated incidents of voter fraud to delegitimize the result of an election. … These changes apply to ads across Facebook and Instagram, and are effective immediately.”
As we get closer to Election Day we want to provide further clarity on policies we recently announced. Last week we said we’d prohibit ads that make premature declarations of victory. We also won’t allow ads with content that seeks to delegitimize the outcome of an election (1/3)
— Rob Leathern (@robleathern) September 30, 2020
The policy exclusively prohibits ad content and doesn’t mention content generated by users, according to Facebook’s Business Help Center.
