Facebook, Google extend ban on political ads

Facebook has extended its ban on political advertising. The company had planned to impose bans on political ads after one week of the US presidential election. The extension of the ban is said to be due to US President Donald Trump and his supporters continue to use the platforms to raise questions on results.

Facebook plans to extend the ban on political advertisements for another, though there are possibilities of resuming these ads sooner.

“The temporary pause for ads about politics and social issues in the US continues to be in place as part of our ongoing efforts to protect the election. Advertisers can expect this to last another month, though there may be an opportunity to resume these ads sooner,” said Facebook in a post.

Google had announced a similar ban on political ads in September. The company said the ban would remain in place at least seven days after the election and it would take stock of the situation on a weekly basis. As of now, Google’s ban on political ads remains in effect.

Facebook, Google and Twitter took unprecedented steps to police the misinformation on their platforms before and during the US presidential elections. These included labelling content that spread misinformation. Facebook just recently took down a few prominent pages and one group that were found promoting misinformation.

The social networking platforms, however, have faced criticism for not doing enough to contain the spread of misinformation. A representative of US president-elect Joe Biden slammed Facebook, accusing the social media giant of “shredding the fabric of our democracy” in the aftermath of the election.

“In the days after Election Day, Facebook is flooded with thousands of calls for violence,” Bill Russo, a Biden campaign spokesman, said in a tweet. “Some of them are taken down, but many are left up for hours, if not days."