After last year’s announcement to allow political ads, Facebook will ban these ads shortly before the upcoming elections. FB stock price is falling.
Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) announced plans to ban political ads in the week before the U.S. presidential election. According to the announcement, some posts will be put down, while some will be labeled.
Meanwhile, Facebook stock is currently trading at $289.30, with a 4.39% loss from its previous close of $302.50. Apart from declining less than 2% in the last five days, FB has been rising for the past twelve months. In the last one year, Facebook stock increased over 51% and nearly 50% from January till now. In addition, the company has climbed 27.72% in the past three months and nearly 9% in the past month.
Facebook Plans to Ban Political Ads
On the 3rd of September, Facebook released a statement on the company’s plan to discontinue political ads from running on the social media platform:
“Today, Mark Zuckerberg announced additional steps we’re taking to help secure the integrity of the US elections by encouraging voting, connecting people to authoritative information, and reducing the risks of post-election confusion.”
In the announcement titled “New Steps to Protect the US Elections,” the ban will begin a week to the presidential election which will take place on the 3rd of November.
However, the ban will not affect entries before the 27th of October. This means that all political ads submitted a week before the election will be banned.
In addition, Facebook said that the company will remove posts that claim voters will contract the coronavirus. Apart from this, Facebook plans to link authoritative information to posts that aim to discourage voting.
Furthermore, posts that seek to delegitimize the election results will still remain on the social media platform but will be labeled with more information. Also, an information label will be attached to posts that discourage lawful voting methods.
Referring to post-election security plans, the company said it will add a label to any candidate’s posts that declare victory before official announcements from the appropriate authorities. If any candidate posts such, Facebook will add a link to the official results from Reuters and the National Election Pool.
Before now, Mark Zuckerberg said he had considered banning political ads but decided against it. He revealed this in a speech delivered at Georgetown University on the 17th of October, 2019. In his speech, the CEO added that the challenge of banning political ads lies with limiting it.
Other Social Media Platforms Prohibit Political Ads
In an October 3rd press release, TikTok revealed plans to disallow political ads on its platform. According to the Beijing-based technology company, the nature of paid political ads does not fit into its mission. As a result, the company banned ads that promote or oppose a candidate or a political leader at any level.
Similarly, microblogging and social networking service Twitter Inc (NYSE: TWTR) also banned political ads from its platform. CEO Jack Dorsey announced the ban in a tweet on the 30th of October, last year.
Following Jack’s announcement, several Democrats in the U.S. reacted to his tweet. Former US secretary of state, Hilary Clinton, praised the decision as positive for global democracy.
Other notable figures that reacted to Twitter’s ban include U.S. House candidate NY-14 Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and House Antitrust Subcommittee Chairman David Cicilline, who said it is a “good” move from twitter.
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