Facebook announced that it will not accept any new political or issue advertising during the final week before the upcoming the U.S. election. Facebook will allow, however, advertisers to continue to use ads that that were already running prior to that time. In announcing the change, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said, "It's important that campaigns can run get out the vote campaigns, and I generally believe the best antidote to bad speech is more speech, but in the final days of an election there may not be enough time to contest new claims."
Facebook also announced other changes to its advertising polices to help secure the integrity of the upcoming U.S. election. The changes include:
- Expanding its voter suppression policies to prohibit implied misrepresentations about how or when to vote;
- Removing posts that claim that people will get COVID-19 if they take part in voting;
- Increasing its work with election officials to remove misinformation about voting;
- Attaching an informational label to content that seeks to delegitimize the outcome of the election or discuss the legitimacy of voting methods; and
- If any candidate or campaign tries to declare victory before the results are in, adding a label to his or her post explaining that official results are not yet in and directing people to the official results.
Facebook also said that, "to ensure there are clear and consistent rules," it is not planning to make any further changes to its election-related policies before the election is over and the "official declaration of the result."