Google, Meta lift election ad bans
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Illustration: Maura Losch/Axios
Meta and Google have both informed advertising partners that their temporary bans on election ads are being lifted, Axios has learned.
Why it matters: Last cycle, due to a runoff election in Georgia and concerns abound the spread of election results misinformation, both companies extended temporary ad bans longer than expected.
- This year, the ad bans are much shorter, thanks to a less confusing environment around the election results.
Zoom in: Google on Friday told its ad partners that it would lift its temporary elections ad ban on Nov. 11, 2024.
- "We are removing the restrictions on ads relating to US elections serving in the US which started after the last polls closed on election day, November 5th, 2024," Google said in an email to ad partners.
- "This includes US Election Ads as well as ads that refer to US elections, their processes or outcomes."
- Meta informed ad partners earlier this week that its ban on new political ads, which was implemented the week before the election, would be lifted on Nov. 7 at 11:59pm PT. It told ad partners last week it would extend its temporary ban on new election ads until several days after the polls closed out of an abundance of caution.
Flashback: Google and Meta had extended ad bans last year until after the Georgia Senate runoff election in December, but then re-implemented political ad bans following the Jan. 6 Capitol attack for several weeks.
The big picture: Changes to political ad policies around elections are meant to prevent bad actors from running ads that could be misleading about the election process or from making claims about their opponents without enough time for their rivals to defend those claims.
- Political advertisers have invested more money over the past few election cycles on digital ads because they are hyper-efficient and allow campaigns to collect critical fundraising data.
