Meta Will Continue Banning New Political Ads Before Election Day
Meta will continue to block new political ads from running on its platforms in the final week before Election Day, the company announced on Thursday.
In a blog post on its corporate website, the social media giant, which owns Facebook, Instagram and Threads, said it has no plans to reevaluate its ad restrictions around Election Day. Ads that have at least one impression prior to the final seven days before the elections will be allowed to remain up.
“Our rationale for this remains the same as it has been for years: in the final days of an election, we recognize that there may not be enough time to contest new claims made in ads,” the company wrote.
The ad policy isn’t new for Meta, which has long banned new political and issue advocacy ads from running on Facebook and Instagram in the final days before Election Day. But the announcement also comes at a time when the company is wading further into the political arena.
The company is poised to spend tens of millions of dollars this year to support politicians friendly toward the artificial intelligence industry. The New York Times reported Wednesday that the company is starting two new super PACs in addition to two others already launched by Meta.
At the same time, Meta’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg has worked to build a closer, more collaborative relationship with President Donald Trump since the 2024 election. The company lifted a suspension of Trump’s Facebook and Instagram accounts that it had put in place in the wake of the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot.
Meta has also retooled its content moderation policy, which had been the subject of complaints by Trump and his allies, who previously accused the company of anti-conservative bias.
In its blog post on Thursday, Meta doubled down on its “Community Notes” feature, which replaced the use of third-party fact checkers last year, as central to its content moderation strategy ahead of the 2026 elections. Under that system, U.S. users of Meta platforms who are over the age of 18 can submit additional context on content and other contributors can “rate” that context.
A note will only be made public if it reaches “consensus,” or agreement among contributors who typically disagree with each other, according to Meta.
“This helps reduce bias and improve the overall quality of notes that end up being published,” the company wrote.
