Facebook is considering the banning of all political advertisements on its platform. The move is to boost its public relations message to its advertisers.
Social media isn’t the social media many used to know in the years back. What used to be an innocent platform for sharing memes and personal updates is now a political platform. It has also morphed into a hostile war front for clashing ideologies. Some notable ones include the war on COVID-19 and the Black Lives Matter movement.
Unfortunately, Facebook has done little to prevent the morph from happening. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has even promoted the platform to be a place for free exchanges of ideas. That is about to change with the recent rumor on a new pivot by the company.
Facebook may ban political advertisements
There is no doubt that Facebook can be used as a weapon by any ill-willed person. It has been used as such, and it will be used as such for future campaigns. Therefore, Facebook holds a crucial role in preventing it from happening.
Fortunately, a recent rumor from insiders claims that the company may ban all political advertisements in the next election. The news comes as a surprise, considering that the U.S. is just a few months away from the mid-term elections. In case such rumor holds, U.S President Trump cannot use social media for his benefit anymore.
….living in the state, no matter who they are or how they got there, will get one. That will be followed up with professionals telling all of these people, many of whom have never even thought of voting before, how, and for whom, to vote. This will be a Rigged Election. No way!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 26, 2020
Last year, Twitter already banned all political advertisements on its platform. However, they still allow issue-based ads from politicians. Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey believes that messages by any candidate should be earned and not bought. The company doesn’t beat around the bush when it comes to this issue. They even fact check Trump’s tweet about mail-in votes just recently.
The war chest of President Trump is undoubtedly deep. So banning political ads on these platforms will force his team to be more creative than usual.
Effects of the ban
Facebook will not stand to lose much from banning these types of ads. The company saw its revenues rise during the first quarter of this year. This was a result of more people staying home and companies being more aggressive in their campaigns.
Whether or not the ban will get the company on the good side of companies is still up for debate. However, Nell Thomas, CTO of the Democratic National Committee, said,
“We said it seven months ago to @Google and we will say it again to @Facebook: a blunt ads ban is not a real solution to disinformation on your platform,”
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