Policy

Facebook to resume political advertising March 4

Facebook

Facebook is lifting a ban on political and social issue ads, which it put in place prior to the 2020 election.

Photo: Chesnot/Getty Images

The social networking giant announced it was lifting a ban on political and social issue ads, which it put in place prior to the 2020 election and left in place amid the surge of post-election instability that culminated in the Jan. 6 riot inside the U.S. Capitol.

Ads related to politics, elections and social issues will return to the platform on March 4, but the company said it would "take a closer look at how these ads work on our service to see where further changes may be merited."

Facebook faced tremendous pressure, particularly from groups on the left who argued the political ad ban was hurting them disproportionately. On Wednesday, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committees released a joint statement, urging Facebook to turn political ads back on.

"The ability to reach grassroots supporters on these platforms is more important now than ever before," the statement read. "Continuing to block political ads indefinitely — with zero transparency and no credible explanation behind this decision — helps Republican politicians at the expense of democracy."

Issie Lapowsky

Issie Lapowsky ( @issielapowsky) is Protocol's chief correspondent, covering the intersection of technology, politics, and national affairs. She also oversees Protocol's fellowship program. Previously, she was a senior writer at Wired, where she covered the 2016 election and the Facebook beat in its aftermath. Prior to that, Issie worked as a staff writer for Inc. magazine, writing about small business and entrepreneurship. She has also worked as an on-air contributor for CBS News and taught a graduate-level course at New York University's Center for Publishing on how tech giants have affected publishing.

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Photo: Carolyn Van Houten/The Washington Post via Getty Images

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Veronica Irwin

Veronica Irwin (@vronirwin) is a San Francisco-based reporter at Protocol covering fintech. Previously she was at the San Francisco Examiner, covering tech from a hyper-local angle. Before that, her byline was featured in SF Weekly, The Nation, Techworker, Ms. Magazine and The Frisc.

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Photo: Noah Berger/Getty Images for Amazon Web Services

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Photo: artpartner-images via Getty Images

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Kate Kaye is an award-winning multimedia reporter digging deep and telling print, digital and audio stories. She covers AI and data for Protocol. Her reporting on AI and tech ethics issues has been published in OneZero, Fast Company, MIT Technology Review, CityLab, Ad Age and Digiday and heard on NPR. Kate is the creator of RedTailMedia.org and is the author of "Campaign '08: A Turning Point for Digital Media," a book about how the 2008 presidential campaigns used digital media and data.

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