Facebook to lift ban on political advertising
Facebook Inc. will end the ban on political advertising in the United States on Thursday, opening its social networking sites to ads on politics, elections and social issues for the first time in months.
The company shut down all new political advertising in the United States in the week leading up to the November general election, and then shut down all advertising on political and social issues in the weeks that followed, as the then president , Donald Trump, publicly fought the result. Facebook allowed some political ads around a Senate runoff in Georgia in early January, but again blocked all political ads on January 6.
We put this temporary ban in place after the November 2020 election to avoid confusion or abuse after election day, the company wrote in a blog post.
The ban is expected to be lifted the same day a militia group may attempt to storm the U.S. Capitol. Some conspiracy theorists have called March 4 a “true groundbreaking day,” prompting warnings about the potential actions of law enforcement officials on Wednesday.
Facebook has said political advertising is only a small part of its overall business, and the company has grown increasingly concerned that candidates are trying to use ads to mislead voters about the process. or election results.
We plan to use the coming months to take a closer look at how these ads are performing on our service to see where further changes may be merited, Menlo Park, Calif., Based Facebook said on Wednesday.
By Kurt Wagner
