Facebook, Google, continue to ban political ads as Trump pushes forward with election fight
Democrats running in Georgia's runoffs say the move by tech giants is costing them a hefty chunk of donations and volunteers needed to secure a win in the Senate.
Facebook and Google will both continue to block political advertisements on their platforms past the two-week moratorium both pre and post-Election Day that they originally announced.
The move comes as President Trump continues to contest the results of the election in several battleground states nearly a week after President-elect Joe Biden was projected to garner the necessary 270 electoral votes to claim victory to the White House.
FACEBOOK, EVENTBRITE SHUT DOWN 'MARCH FOR TRUMP' EVENT PAGES Facebook said they “expect this temporary pause to last another month," but added that “there may be an opportunity to resume these ads sooner," according to an email sent to advertisers, according to the Financial Times.
Google said they have kept their ad-blocks in place as well, longer than they originally intended, but have not specified when the rule will be lifted, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Still, Democratic opponents running in heated runoff races in Georgia to unseat incumbent Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue have lambasted Facebook and Google for blocking advertisements meant to sway voters by January.
"There is no replacing missed high-leverage moments in online fundraising. And ads are a HUGE part of that. Every day @Facebook and @Google wait to turn ads back on they cost @ReverendWarnock a huge number of donations AND volunteers," Tim Tagaris, former digital fundraising director for Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders's 2016 presidential campaign, tweeted Monday. "A big gift to self-funding Kelly Loeffler."
Tech giants have taken heat throughout the election cycle for not doing enough to stop the spread of disinformation, and each company has reacted differently.
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Twitter has opted to flag tweets by the President -- amounting to over a dozen thus far -- as containing possible misinformation. Trump has used the platform to peddle his numerous election lawsuits and purport that widespread election fraud occurred across multiple states-- claims which have thus far been unsubstantiated. Trump and his campaign have also accused Democrats of attempting to "steal the election" away from him after it became clear he was losing in many battleground states.
Facebook has refused to censor posts but recently opted to ban groups such as a pro-Trump organizer called "Stop the Steal," after they say the group attempted to delegitimize the election.
Facebook also added that: "We saw worrying calls for violence from some members," which caused them to be shutdown by the social media powerhouse.