Dems and GOP worry about Facebook and Google political ad bans ahead of Georgia Senate runoffs – By Caitlin Conant (CBS News) / Nov 11 2020
Both Democrats and Republicans are worried social media platform bans on political ads could hinder them as they try to reach voters ahead of the Georgia Senate runoffs, report CBS News associate producers Sarah Ewall-Wice and Ellee Watson.
Facebook and Google both banned political and social issue ads in the wake of the November election in an attempt to prevent abuse of their platforms, disinformation and confusion about the results.
On Wednesday, Facebook confirmed its post-election ban on these ads will continue amid ongoing vote counting and legal efforts in some states.”Advertisers can expect this to last another month, though there may be an opportunity to resume these ads sooner,” the social network said in a statement.
Facebook’s Rob Leathern addressed Georgia specifically in a tweet Wednesday. “It’s taken years to build the infrastructure that supports the Facebook Ad Library and ensure that political ads are transparent,” he wrote. “We do not have the technical ability in the short term to enable political ads by state or by advertiser, and we are also committed to giving political advertisers equal access to our tools and services.”
