- Facebook pulled down four sets of Trump ads on Tuesday, two of which implied it was already Election Day.
- The Trump ads all featured the copy “Vote today!” and two of them contained the phrase “election day is today!”
- Facebook said it took the ads down for violating its ad policies, but did not specify which policies exactly they had broken.
- Facebook now has a seven-day ban on any new political ads being approved ahead of the election on November 3.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Facebook on Tuesday booted four sets of Trump ads off its platform, two of which falsely claimed it was already Election Day, the Financial Times was the first to report.
All of the ads ran featured the copy “Vote today!” and two featured the words “election day is today!”
Facebook Ad Library
Data from Facebook’s Ad Library shows 269 iterations of the ads were run in total, and they were seen by between 714,000 users and 831,000 users.
They were mostly targeted at users in Georgia, Florida, and Arizona — Republican-leaning states that the Democrats hope to challenge for.
Georgia, Arizona, and Florida all have early in-person voting, but Election Day is enshrined in the constitution as November 3.
In Facebook’s Ad Library, the social-media company states the ads were taken down for breaking Facebook’s advertising policies, but did not specify which policy they violated.
Facebook was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Business Insider.
Tuesday October 27 marked the beginning of Facebook’s week-long ban on political ads, which means no new political ads will be approved and run by the platform ahead of the election on November 3.
It’s possible that the ads were submitted and approved ahead of the October 27 deadline, in which case, they may have been taken down because of Facebook’s policies on voter interference, which Trump has fallen foul of in the past.
These policies are geared towards “protecting the integrity of the election by fighting foreign interference, misinformation and voter suppression.”
Last week Facebook removed 48 ads from the Trump campaign which included the phrase: “Your vote has not been counted.”
The Trump campaign also ran an ad on Monday that appeared to sidestep Facebook’s rules. The ad featured a video with President Trump’s face superimposed on a rising sun, accompanied by audio that said: “It’s morning in America. Donald J. Trump is still president of the United States.”
The ad, although technically correct, appeared to be toying with Facebook’s rules against either presidential candidate declaring premature victory.
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