Facebook to limit political ads in days before election

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg announced the news in a Facebook post, but said advertisers will still be able to continue running political adverts that started before the final week of the campaign and adjust the targeting for those ads.

Facebook will remove posts claiming that people will contract Covid-19 if they participate in voting, and will attach a link to virus information to content that attempts to use the pandemic to discourage voting.

Where content appears that ‘seeks to delegitimise the outcome of the election or discuss the legitimacy of voting methods’, posts will be flagged with an information label rather than being removed.

If candidates or campaigns publish posts attempting to declare victory prematurely, the company said it would add a label linking to the official results from Reuters and the National Election Pool.