Google will no longer allow political advertisers to target voters based on their political affiliation, the company announced Wednesday, in a move that will increase pressure on Facebook to limit micro-targeting.
Google also plans to “clarify” its ad policies around false claims to explicitly ban doctored video and images known as “deepfakes”, misleading claims about the census, and “demonstrably false claims” that could undermine trust in elections or the democratic process.
“Whether you’re running for office or selling office furniture, we apply the same ads policies to everyone; there are no carve-outs,” the Google Ads executive Scott Spencer wrote in a blogpost. The policy clarification is an implicit criticism of Facebook’s controversial decision to allow politicians an exemption from its own ban on false claims in advertising.
“No one can sensibly adjudicate every political claim, counterclaim, and insinuation,” Spencer wrote. “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.”
Under Google’s new rules, ads that refer to candidates, political parties or ballot measures will be barred from using some of Google’s powerful tools that combine data sources and target individual users, according to an email to advertisers shared by the Democratic presidential candidate Cory Booker’s deputy campaign manager. Political advertisers will still be allowed to target voters by age, gender and location to the level of postal code.
Google joins Twitter in voluntarily limiting its political advertising offerings before the UK general election on 12 December and the 2020 US presidential election. (Targeting by political affiliation was not previously allowed in the UK, so that policy will not change in the UK.)
On 30 October, Twitter made the surprise announcement that it would ban almost all political advertising starting on 22 November. Twitter has since fleshed out a policy that will ban all candidates, elected officials and parties from advertising but allow some not-for-profit organizations and companies to promote messages about social issues.
Twitter’s decision intensified the debate over digital political ads. While the company earned some praise, many experts on political communications called for a more nuanced approach that would maintain access to digital advertising for smaller campaigns and parties. Ellen Weintraub, the chair of the US Federal Election Commission, has called for restrictions on micro-targeting, which allows campaigns to tailor different advertisements to incredibly precise segments of the electorate.
