SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook said on Wednesday that it plans to lift the ban on political advertising on its network, resuming a form of digital promotion that has been criticized for spreading misinformation, falsehoods and inflaming voters.
The social network said it would allow advertisers to buy new ads about “social issues, elections or politics” starting on Thursday, according to a copy of an email sent to political advertisers and seen by The New York Times. These advertisers must complete a series of identity checks before being allowed to place the ads, the company said.
“We put this temporary ban into effect after the November 2020 election to avoid confusion or abuse after election day,” said Facebook on a blog. “We heard a lot of comments about it and learned more about political and electoral announcements during this election cycle. As a result, we plan to use the coming months to take a closer look at how these ads work on our service to see where other changes can be merited. “
Political advertising on Facebook always faces issues. Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, said he would like to maintain a largely evasive stance on speech on the site – including political ads – unless it did immediate damage to the public or individuals, saying he “doesn’t want to be arbiter of truth. “
But after the 2016 presidential election, the company and intelligence officials found that the Russians used Facebook ads to sow discontent among Americans. Former President Donald J. Trump also used Facebook’s political ads to broaden allegations about an “invasion” of the Mexican border in 2019, among other incidents.
Facebook banned political ads at the end of last year as a way to quell the misinformation and threats of violence surrounding the November presidential election. In September, the company said it planned to ban new political ads in the week before election day and that it would act quickly against posts that tried to dissuade people from voting. Then, in October, Facebook expanded that action by declaring that it would ban all political and issue-based advertising after the polls closed on November 3 for an indefinite period.
In December, the company lifted the ban to allow some advertisers to post political issues and candidacy announcements in Georgia for the second round of January in the state. But the ban remained in effect for the remaining 49 states.
This is a developing story and will be updated.