Facebook Political Ad Blackout
For the first time ever, Facebook will be banning political ads. So let’s clear up all the confusion behind this move and what this means for advertisers and users moving forward. I will be taking a journalistic approach to covering the content, staying away from bias as I feel strongly about journalistic integrity and upholding the standards set.
Update from November 11
Quoted Directly from Facebook
What Caused This?
Due to the criticism Facebook gathered during the 2016 election, Facebook looked at multiple methods of how to refine the advertising standards while not drawing the ire of censorship. On the 10th of July 2020 news broke that Facebook was considering an advertising blackout and well what do you know…
What Facebook Said
On September 3rd 2020 Facebook announced sweeping changes to the Advertising structure for political ads. These changes drew criticism from both parties which I will stay away from however the major change to advertising is that no new political ads can be created a week before the election. They have also since said that the ban will be upheld through an indefinite period of time. At the very least the ban will run until the results of the elections are official and finalized however the ban may last longer.
Frontloading
What can be done about these new changes? Well it’s simple, frontload the advertisements before the 27th of October or else the ad will be rejected automatically and won’t run. Ads must run and have impressions prior to the 27th in order to continue to run up to election day. So there is nothing stopping advertisers from uploading all the ads and having them gather impressions on the 26th so they continue through the 3rd of November. Now that does mean that the ads have to clear the moderation department and run on the 26th which given demand for election week ads is at a premium and these new features essentially move the date forward a week strain on the system may be higher than usual. Political ads take on average 24 hours to get approved which means that if everything works properly the ads need to be uploaded on the 25th so that they can clear on the 26th and begin running to gather an impression before the 27th.
What Does This Mean for the Ads?
Get your advertising in before the 25th. Seriously. Also, keep in mind that there will be no way for anyone to retaliate to ads created on or before this date. Once the 25th passes and ads run on the 26th there’s no going back. The implications to this can be frightening but Facebook will take actions against false information and other such forms of misinformation within ads.
Conclusion
The approach by Facebook to blackout the advertising is one that lives on a catch 22. A ban like this was never considered before and we don’t have any data. Seriously this is uncharted waters we’re entering and companies are trying to adapt to the current political environment. While this (this is the part that is my opinion) is a step in the right direction I doubt that this will be a foolproof measure and that there will be changes made based on how people use this new ruleset. Is it perfect? Probably not, but there’s no way for us to know until we try it. From a consumer’s point of view I would personally love if I never had to see a political ad again, but there’s too much money in the game for that to happen barring a catastrophe.
