Facebook Tightens Political Ad Bans As US Election Nears

Banned ads would include calling a method of voting inherently fraudulent or corrupt, or using isolated incidents of voter fraud to delegitimize the result of an election, Rob Leathern, Facebook’s director of product management, tweeted. The changes apply to Facebook and Instagram and are effective immediately, he said.

The ban includes ads that call an election into question because the result isn’t determined on the final day of voting. There is a good chance U.S. election results will require additional time this year because of expanded mail-in ballots due to the pandemic.

Also banned are advertisements portraying voting or census participation as meaningless and advising people not to take part.

The Trump administration has been trying to end the 2020 U.S. census early, as part of what opponents say is a strategy to enhance the political power of Republicans and non-Hispanic whites by undercounting minorities and others in hard-to-count communities. The census numbers are used to decide how many congressional seats each state gets for the next decade.