Facebook to Block New Political Ads a Week Before Election Day
- Company will also remove misleading posts ahead of election
- Voter suppression policy expanded to remove more offenders
Facebook Inc. is expanding its policies to guard against voter suppression and removing a wider swath of misleading posts ahead of the 2020 U.S. election. The company also said it will block campaigns from submitting new ads in the week leading up to Election Day on Nov. 3, preventing candidates from posting uncontested messages ahead of the vote.
The changes are part of a broader update on Facebook’s election strategy, which was outlined Thursday in a post by Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg. The CEO is particularly worried about election night uncertainty, when there may be hours or days between the polls closing and the announcement of valid results. “There’s a greater chance of civil unrest and violence after the election,” he told CBS in an interview aired Thursday.