August 18, 2022
Facebook’s parent company Meta announced plans on Wednesday to introduce a ban on political ads the week before the 2022 U.S. midterm elections, after making a similar decision during the 2020 presidential election.
Meta said it is bringing the ban back because “we found that the restriction period achieves the right balance of giving campaigns a voice while providing additional time for scrutiny of political ads in the Ad Library.”
The previous ban, in 2020, had become necessary after the company faced a huge backlash over misinformation on the website before the 2016 election.
Some misinformation came from Russian-affiliated groups that some continue to believe was a key reason for Donald Trump’s victory over Hillary Clinton.
To prevent a similar scenario, the company introduced a ban in 2020. Facebook’s temporary ban during the 2020 election evolved into a longer ban, which was eventually lifted in March 2021.
Social media platforms are an important source of misinformation, and lawmakers are demanding more from these platforms, especially as regards monitoring content on their platforms.
The sources for this piece include an article in BusinessInsider.
