By Elizabeth Culliford
(Reuters) -Facebook Inc said on Tuesday that Georgia will again be added to the social media company’s existing political ad ban on Wednesday, after the state’s runoff elections.
“This is part of our ongoing efforts to reduce the potential for confusion or abuse,” Facebook told advertisers in an email seen by Reuters.
Last month, Facebook said it would lift its temporary ban for political ads in Georgia, as the state prepared for runoff elections that would determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.
Both Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google introduced pauses on political ads after the Nov. 3 presidential election as part of measures to combat misinformation and other abuses on the sites. Google lifted its pause in December, saying it no longer considered the post-election period to be a “sensitive event.” [L4N2IP3CU]
Facebook said in a blog post on Tuesday that any ads about the Georgia runoff elections would be paused and any advertisers who were previously allowed to run ads about the Georgia runoff elections would not be able to create new political ads.
Facebook did not immediately respond to questions on when the overall pause would be lifted.
(Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru and Elizabeth Culliford in New York; Editing by David Gregorio)
