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Google Says Will Block US Election Ads After November 3

Google Says Will Block US Election Ads After November 3

Social media firms are facing growing pressure to stop carrying ads that spread false information and may steer election results.

By Reuters | Updated: 26 September 2020 12:55 IST

Google Says Will Block US Election Ads After November 3

Google has previously limited the ways election advertisers could micro-target voters

Highlights

Google emailed advertisers about the latest change
Facebook also recently said that it would stop accepting political ads
Google would block ads running on election-rated search queries

Alphabet's Google will block election ads on its platform after the US election on November 3, a company spokeswoman said on Friday.

Axios, which first reported the news, said Google mailed advertisers saying they will not be able to run ads "referencing candidates, the election, or its outcome, given that an unprecedented amount of votes will be counted after election day this year."

Social media companies have been facing growing pressure to stop carrying ads that spread false information and could steer election results.

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Facebook also said it would stop accepting new political ads in the week before the election and would reject ads that seek to claim victory before the results of the election are declared.

Twitter banned political ads last year, while Google has previously limited the ways election advertisers could micro-target voters.

Google's new policy will target ads that are explicitly election-related as well as any other types of ads that reference federal or state elections, or ads that run based on targeting election-related search queries, the Axios report said.

© Thomson Reuters 2020

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