Facebook Says It Will Temporarily Stop Running Political Ads After Polls Close on Election Day

Loic Venance/AFP, Getty

Facebook announced Wednesday that it plans to stop running political ads for a while starting from as soon as the polls close on November 3rd.

Given the surge of mail-in voting this year, it’s widely expected that full election results will not come out on election night.

In a blog post Wednesday, Guy Rosen — the company’s VP of integrity — writes, “Getting the final election results this year may take longer than previous elections due to the pandemic and more people voting by mail. So we’re preparing a range of policies and products to keep people informed and prevent the spread of misinformation.”

Rosen says that if any candidate declares a premature victory before the race is officially called, they “will add more specific information in the notifications that counting is still in progress and no winner has been determined.”

Most notably, it says they plan on banning all political ads for a while:

“In addition, while ads are an important way to express voice, we plan to temporarily stop running all social issue, electoral or political ads in the US after the polls close on November 3, to reduce opportunities for confusion or abuse. We will notify advertisers when this policy is lifted.”

The announcement also adds that they will “remove calls for people to engage in poll watching when those calls use militarized language or suggest that the goal is to intimidate, exert control, or display power over election officials or voters.”