Facebook bans ads that seek to delegitimize election results

Facebook will ban any ads that seek to delegitimize the outcome of the election, the company said Wednesday.

Rob Leathern, Facebook director of product management, said the policy applies to any ads that make false claims about voting by mail or other methods of voting. It also bans the use of isolated incidents of voter fraud to discredit the result of an election, Leathern said.

“These changes apply to ads across Facebook and Instagram, and are effective immediately,” he tweeted.

The social media giant announced last week that it would prohibit ads that make premature declarations of victory. Organic posts that make false claims are labeled.

The policy change appears aimed at President Donald Trump’s use of social media as a megaphone to spread falsehoods about mail-in voting election and claims of voter fraud.

Facebook and other social media companies have made sweeping changes in the crucial lead-up to this year's highly contentious election in which an unprecedented number of Americans are expected to vote by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Earlier this week, Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden turned up the pressure on Facebook to take down Trump’s posts containing voting misinformation as the two prepared to face each other in the first presidential debate.

In a letter to CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday, the Biden campaign accused Facebook of regressing in its mission to aggressively fight misinformation about the 2020 election by not barring posts from the president that misrepresent the voting process.