Facebook to not accept new political ads in last week of US election

Facebook Inc announced on September 3 that the company would stop accepting new political ads in the final week of the presidential elections campaign. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that there may not be enough time to contest new claims in the final days of elections, prompting the social media to decline new political or issue ad requests. 

“| generally believe the best antidote to bad speech is more speech, but in the final days of an election there may not be enough time to contest new claims,” wrote Zuckerberg in a Facebook post.

However, the tech billionaire highlighted that advertisers will be able to continue running ads they started it before the final week and will also be able to adjust the targeting for those ads. Zuckerberg warned that there could be an increased risk of civil unrest across the country, citing the polarisation in the United States, especially at a time when face masks have also been politicised.

“I'm also worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days or even weeks to be finalized, there could be an increased risk of civil unrest across the country,” he wrote.

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Facebook announced additional steps to encourage voting, connect people with authoritative information, and fight misinformation. Zuckerberg said the changes reflect what they have learned from their elections work over the past four years and the conversations they have had with voting rights experts and our civil rights auditors.

Voting campaign

In July, Facebook had announced its plan to help four million Americans register to vote ahead of the upcoming presidential elections. In an opinion piece published by USA Today, Zuckerberg said that Facebook is launching the largest voting campaign in American history since voting is the ultimate way to hold leaders accountable.

Naomi Gleit, VP of Product Management and Social Impact for Facebook, said in a blog post that the company is building a new Voting Information Center that will give accurate information about voting. It will also provide the tools needed to register social media users across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, to help them get to the polls.

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