Digital advertisers clarify election policies as Meta tries to avoid political problems

Controlling the flow… of election info. Google said it would block all election ads on its platforms (including YouTube) after the polls close tomorrow, repeating its 2020 policy. Meta’s been blocking new ads in the week leading up to Election Day. The ad giants are trying to control misinfo and prevent advertisers from questioning election results or prematurely claiming victory (something that Meta explicitly bans). Smaller players like X and Snap — which has leaned into political coverage — appear to have no plans for a blanket ad block. TikTok’s banned political ads since 2019.

• Boost: Google reported last week that its Q3 ad sales jumped 10%, partly thanks to election ad spend (especially on YouTube).

• On mute: Meta’s ad sales jumped 19% in the same period, though execs didn’t mention the election during their earnings call.

#BadMems… Meta boss Mark Zuckerberg has a reason for taking a first-date approach to politics: the Instagram parent faced the most scrutiny over past election misinfo. Russian operatives in 2016 weaponized ads across social media, reaching the most people by far on Facebook. (Congress later grilled the leaders of Facebook, Twitter, and Google.) And in 2020, Meta’s apps were accused of hosting misleading political and Covid-related ads. So after talking about elections in several earnings calls through 2021, Zuck kept mum this year. Meta said it tweaked its algorithms to deprioritize political content in its feeds in 2021, and this year said it would further downgrade it on Insta and Threads.

• Skipped: While Google’s been dinged for questionable YouTube videos (think: content creators spreading misinfo), a study this year found that YouTube let fewer election-misinfo ads slip through than its rivals.