Facebook announced Wednesday that it is ending the ban on political advertisements that has been in place since November.
Political, electoral and social issue advertisements can resume beginning Thursday, Facebook said in an update. The ban was put in place during the 2020 election over concerns about the spread of misinformation.
“This election is not going to be business as usual,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a September post on Facebook. “We all have a responsibility to protect our democracy.” (RELATED: Facebook Unbans Political Ads In Georgia, But Only For ‘Authorized’ Advertisers)
The company also banned content that discouraged people from voting and blocked any attempt by political candidates to claim victory before a winner was officially declared in their election.
“We put this temporary ban in place after the November 2020 election to avoid confusion or abuse following Election Day,” the company said. “We’ve heard a lot of feedback about this and learned more about political and electoral ads during this election cycle. As a result, we plan to use the coming months to take a closer look at how these ads work on our service to see where further changes may be merited.”
Google also lifted its ban on political advertisements in February, which was put in place after the January 6 Capitol riot. Facebook began removing content related to the riot, including all content related to “stop the steal,” a political movement of people who believe Donald Trump was the real winner of the 2020 election.