Yesterday, Facebook announced an extension of their political ad ban in the United States. This action was extended in light of the two Georgia Senate runoffs that are set to take place in early January of 2021.
What We Know:
- Facebook will not run any advertisements in the U.S. that are related to politics and social issues. This is an effort to keep the elections fair, legitimate, and reduce confusion for voters. Google has also announced a temporary political ad ban, for unspecified reasons.
- The two Georgia runoffs are crucial to determine if Republicans will gain control of the Senate. The elections, set for January 5, 2021, are a match against Democrat Jon Ossoff against Republican David Perdue, and Rev. Raphael Warnock (Democrat) against Republican Kelly Loeffler.
- According to NBC, the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC) saw the ban as a direct attack on their campaign. They stated that the ban will keep voters uninformed and allow Republicans to keep their power in Congress. “Organic disinformation is the actual problem on these platforms, and continuing to ban ads is now actively harmful to organizations working to inform Georgia’s diverse voters about the January runoffs,” DSCC Executive Director Scott Fairchild said in a statement.
- On Wednesday, Facebook’s Rob Leathern addressed the issue in a tweet. “We know that people are disappointed that we can’t immediately enable ads for runoff elections in Georgia and elsewhere. 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.”
With the issue of spreading misinformation at its height, here are the facts: the deadline to register to vote in the runoff race is December 7th. Early voting will start on December 14th. There are no pre-determined winners for this race, so make sure to vote!
