As per Axios, Google will not allow advertisers to run ads related to the election after November 3rd. The company made this known in an email sent to advertisers where it said the change is as a result of the “unprecedented” number of votes expected to be counted after Election Day.
Among platforms to be affected by the block are DV360, Google Ads, YouTube, and AdX Authorized Buyer. Also, the Google ban will affect ones that are explicitly election-related, and any other ones that refer to federal or state elections within the ad, or ads that run based on targeting election-related search queries, including on candidates or officeholders.
Results of this year’s election are not expected to be announced on election night unlike what we have had in the past. The reason for this is because more people are expected to vote by mail due to the pandemic. With the ban expected to be in place, Google would have prevented political campaigns of Donald Trump or Joe Biden from running ads claiming victory prematurely and spreading fake information about the outcome.
Still on the upcoming election, but not related to Google, Twitter has again appended warning labels on another controversial tweet posted by President Trump. In the tweets, Trump had suggested that voters who submitted their ballots by email should also go to their polling stations on Election Day to verify their votes and be counted. “If it has not been Counted, VOTE (which is a citizen’s right to do),” the president had tweeted in one of a number of other tweets a couple of weeks ago.
The president also posted similar messages on Facebook. Facebook also slapped a notice beneath the post which reads: “voting by mail has a long history of trustworthiness in the US and the same is predicted this year, Facebook said, directing its users to its voting information center.
While Facebook’s move did not prevent users from viewing and reading the post, Twitter’s action prevented them unless they click through a dialogue warning that the tweet was a violation of its rules that have to do with civic and election integrity. Twitter, however, adds that it “may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”
In a statement, Twitter per CNBC said: “To protect people on Twitter, we err on the side of limiting the circulation of Tweets which advise people to take actions which could be illegal in the context of voting or result in the invalidation of their votes.”
In June, Twitter labeled another tweet posted by Trump, which the social media giant claimed violated its “rules about abusive behavior.” Despite adjudging the tweet to be “abusive,” the microblogging company failed to apply the hammer—claiming “that it may be in the public’s interest for the tweet to remain accessible.”
