Google to lift temporary post election political ad ban

-



Google will lift its temporary ban on election-related advertisements on December 10, it said on Wednesday.


Google’s pause of election ads, which came into effect after polls closed in the United States presidential election on November 3, was one of its measures to combat misleading informations and other abuses on its site.


It was part of its “sensitive events” policy, which seeks to prohibit content that potentially capitalises on events like public health emergencies or natural.


Google said in an email to advertisers seen by Reuters that “we no longer consider the post-election period to be a sensitive event.”Major online platforms have been under pressure to police misinformation about the election on their sites falsifications that continued to proliferate on social media after Election Day.


“We will still rigorously enforce our ads policies, which strictly prohibit demonstrably false information that could significantly undermine trust in elections or the democratic process, among other forms of abuse,” Google said in a statement on Wednesday.


When Google announced the ban to advertisers in September, a spokeswoman said that it would be in place for a minimum of a week and that factors such as whether there was civil unrest would impact when it was lifted.


Facebook which introduced a temporary ban on political and issue ads, said in November that its post-election pause on political ads would likely last another month.


Facebook did not immediately reply to a Reuters question on when it would lift its ban.


The extensions of the ad pauses raised concerns from campaigns and groups eager to reach voters for key races on January 5.


These runoff races are set to decide control of the US Senate.


Google’s ban applied to election-related ads on its ad-serving platforms, including its video-streaming service YouTube and Google Ads.


In a separate announcement, YouTube on Wednesday said that it would start removing content that alleges election fraud or technical errors, arguing that “enough states have certified their election results to determine a President-elect”.


“Given that, we will start removing any piece of content uploaded today that misleads people by alleging that widespread fraud or errors changed the outcome of the 2020 U.S.


Presidential election, in line with our approach towards historical U.S. Presidential elections.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Petitioner-SARS officers threw me from two-storey building, broke my backbone

-
Image
A 34 year old general merchant, Mr Ndukwe Ekekwe, Tuesday, told the Lagos State Judicial Panel of Enquiry and Restitution for Victims of Special Ant-Robbery Squad (SARS) related abuses and other matters, that he broke his backbone after SAR officers threw him down from a two-storey building which resulted in him being confined in a wheelchair. Ekekwe told the panel that on February 16, 2018, he was at his shop at Alaba Rago, in Alaba International market, when he was arrested, by men of SARS, who handcuffed him. When he asked them to show their identification card, and that he wanted to know his offence, they started shooting and told him that the order was from the Inspector General (IG)of Police. The petitioner, who said he sells phone accessories and other things, said when he was arrested, he was trying to raise alarm, so that other people can see what was happening. The SARS operatives then called one Haruna Amaz and he told them to keep me busy. That was when they pushed me upsta
Read more

What COVID-19 reveals about educational inequality in Ghana

-
Image
The coronavirus pandemic has exposed stark inequalities in Ghana's educational system. Pupils gather around their teacher in class in Prestea, a mining town in southwest Ghana  Kwabena Opoku-Agyemang, a lecturer at the University of Ghana, is looking for new ways to carry on teaching his students. He has no other choice. Ever since Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo ordered last month the indefinite closure of all schools to curb the spread of the new coronavirus, many of the country's higher educational institutions began exploring options in online learning. "I plan to use WhatsApp and Zoom to make the classes more interactive," said Opoku-Agyemang, who teaches literature courses at the Accra-based university's Department of English. "I will also be having guest artists and guest lecturers join in. The artists will use Instagram Live, while the guest lecturers will probably use Zoom." Yet, it won't
Read more