Google is banning advertisers from displaying ads associated with the election after Election Day. In an email to advertisers, google announced the difference is due to the “unprecedented” number of votes that will be included after November 3rd, as reported by Axios.
While the winner of the US presidential election is usually announced on election night, this year the process is deemed to take extended as more people are voting by mail due to the pandemic.
That window could give the political campaigns of Donald Trump or Joe Biden a chance to run ads precipitately declaring victory and increasing confusion about the results.
To define misinformation about the result of the vote, Facebook newly published it will block ads from political campaigns that declare an early victory. The company is also banning new political ads the week before the election.
Google declared its policy blocks ads that mention the election, its results, or that target people based on election-related search queries, Axios reports. It will utilize ads running over the company’s ad-serving platforms, which add Google Ads and YouTube.
Facebook on Banning Ads
Facebook will refuse ads from Donald Trump and Joe Biden declaring victory before the winner of the US election is announced.
The move is an update to a Facebook policy CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced on September 3rd, which banned political ads the week before the election, as described by Fast Company.
That policy would not have prevented Trump or Biden from running ads directly after the election. Either presidential candidate could have begun claiming victory at 12:01 AM PT on November 4th.
As part of the extended policy, Facebook announced it would also mark posts that attempt to spread suspicion about the legitimacy of the election as well as content from political campaigns demanding a premature victory.
The new policies are part of the company’s ongoing attempts to stop election interference over its platforms.