Earlier this month, Meta announced updates to its political advertising policies in advance of the midterm elections in the United States.  

Nick Clegg, Meta's President of Global Affairs, said, "With the 2022 US midterms on the horizon, we are setting out how our approach applies in this election cycle, which is largely consistent with the policies and safeguards we had in place during the 2020 US Presidential election." 

Election Advertising

Meta said that, in the final week of the mid-term election campaign, no new political, electoral, or social advertisements will be accepted.  Facebook will also not allow any edits related to creative, placement, targeting, or optimization.  Facebook said that it is implementing this policy because "in the final days of an election, we recognize there may not be enough time to contest new claims made in ads."  

Meta said that this restriction will be lifted the day after the election and that it has "no plans" to extend it.  Meta explained that it doesn't intend to repeat the ad pause that was put in place after the election in 2022, because that was "intended to be a temporary measure in response to extraordinary circumstances in the US."  

Additional Restrictions

Meta also said that it will reject ads that encourage people not to vote or that question the legitimacy of the upcoming election. Specifically, Meta's new policy prohibit the following types of ads: 

• Ads that portray voting or census participation as useless/meaningless and/or advise users not to vote or participate in a census.

• Ads that delegitimize any lawful method or process of voting or voting tabulation (including in-person voting on paper or on machines, absentee voting, vote by mail, and lawful collection of ballots), as illegal, inherently fraudulent, or corrupt, or will result in a fraudulent or corrupt election administration or outcome.

• Ads that delegitimize an election and/or result as fraudulent or corrupt because the result can't be determined on the final day of voting and/or before ballots received after the final day of voting are lawfully counted.

• Ads that claim voter fraud (such as voter impersonation, duplicate voting, or non-eligible individuals voting) is widespread and/or alters the outcome of elections and/or results in a fraudulent or corrupt election.

• Ads that claim the election date or the mechanism for electing the President can be changed in ways not permitted by a country’s set of laws.

• Ads with premature claims of election victory.

• Ads that are inconsistent with health authorities on voting safely.