Google said on Monday that it would lift a ban on political and campaign ads that had been put into effect after the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, according to a report from The Hill.
The “sensitive events” ban went into effect on Jan. 13 and is expected to be repealed on Wednesday, Axios reported.
NEW: Google will resume accepting all political ads this week after banning them following last month’s insurrection at the Capitol, according to an email obtained by Axios. https://t.co/2PyPD56So2
— Axios (@axios) February 22, 2021
“We are currently enforcing a sensitive event for the US elections. Advertisers are not permitted to run ads which reference the candidates, the election, its outcome, the upcoming presidential inauguration, the ongoing presidential impeachment process, violence at the US Capitol, or future planned protests on these topics,” a statement from the tech company read on Jan. 14. (RELATED: Google’s New Fact-Check Feature Almost Exclusively Targets Conservative Sites)
A Google spokesperson told The Hill, “Starting on Wednesday, we will be lifting our Sensitive Events policy to again allow advertisers to run political ads. We will continue to rigorously enforce our ads policies, which strictly prohibit demonstrably false information that could significantly undermine trust in elections or the democratic process.”
Facebook also implemented a ban on political ads but has not yet decided when the ban will be removed, according to Politico. The social media tech giant implemented the ban ahead of the Georgia Senate runoff races in January, but the ban was once again reinstated, according to the report.