Nandini Roy Choudhury, writer
Brief news
- Meta has extended its ban on new political ads on Facebook and Instagram beyond Election Day, without specifying a new end date.
- Advertisers can edit existing ads but cannot run new ones during this period.
- Similar restrictions were implemented by Google, with significant political ad spending reported recently.
Detailed news
In the United States, Meta has extended its restriction on new political advertisements on Facebook and Instagram beyond the day of the election.
On Monday, the social media giant provided an amendment to its policy on political advertisements, extending its prohibition on new political advertisements beyond Tuesday, which was the initial day that the restriction period was scheduled to expire.
It was merely said that the ad banning would stay “until later this week,” and Meta did not provide any specific information on the day that it will release the restriction. The corporation did not provide any explanation as to why it decided to prolong the ban period on political advertising.
During the month of August, the firm made the announcement that any political advertisements that had been broadcast on Meta’s services at least once before to October 29th would still be permitted to be broadcast during the last week before Election Day. You will not be permitted to run any more political advertisements.
According to Meta, organizations that have advertisements that are eligible for the limitation will have “limited editing capabilities” while the restriction is still in effect. The advertisers in question will be granted permission to make modifications to their political advertisements in terms of timing, budgeting, and bidding, according to Meta.
In the year 2020, Meta implemented the same policy. This policy was implemented by the corporation because “we recognize there may not be enough time to contest new claims made in advertisements,” according to the statement.
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, made a similar announcement about an amendment to its advertising policy on the previous month, stating that it will stop advertisements related to elections in the United States from appearing after the last polls shut on Tuesday. When the delay is lifted, Alphabet has stated that it would share the news with advertisers.
According to statistics provided by AdImpact, an advertising analytics business, about one billion dollars has been spent on political advertisements over the course of the past week. The majority of this money has been spent on races that are farther down the ballot in the United States.
Source : CNBC News
