Google on Wednesday updated how it handles political ads it said it will stop giving advertisers the ability to target election ads using data such as public voter records and general political affiliations.
According to Reuters, the move comes at a time when social media platforms are under pressure over their handling of political advertising ahead of the U.S. presidential election in 2020. Google said it would limit audience targeting for election ads to age, gender and general location at a postal code level. Political advertisers also can still contextually target, such as serving ads to people reading about a certain topic.
The internet company said its rules already ban any advertiser, including those with political messages, to lie. But it is making its policy more clear and adding examples of how that prohibits content such as doctored or manipulated images or video. "It's against our policies for any advertiser to make a false claim -- whether it's a claim about the price of a chair or a claim that you can vote by text message, that election day is postponed, or that a candidate has died," Google ads product management vice president Scott Spencer said in an online post.
Examples of banned ad material included ads or links to information making demonstrably false claims that could undermine voter trust or participation in elections. "Of course, we recognize that robust political dialogue is an important part of democracy, and no one can sensibly adjudicate every political claim, counterclaim, and insinuation," Spencer said. "So we expect that the number of political ads on which we take action will be very limited - but we will continue to do so for clear violations."
On December 3, the company will expand its ad transparency efforts to ads related to state-level elections, including them in an online database created to catalogue political advertising.
