Google removes 300 ads for the Trump campaign .. What about Facebook?

About a year before the 2020 US presidential election, social media giants are updating their policies on the spread of misinformation to better protect the democratic process.

While Google and Twitter have banned political ads on their platforms, Facebook remains reluctant to do so, raising doubts about pressure from President Donald Trump's campaign.

No political ads on Google and Twitter
Last month, Google took a stand on how it handles political advertising on its platforms, including YouTube.

The Internet giant will identify political advertisers from targeting ads based on voter political inclinations or public voter registers.

During the summer, Google and YouTube are said to have removed more than 300 ads for "violating company policy."

The YouTube Transparency Report, which shows events where ads have been removed from the platform, accounted for more than 300 of President Donald Trump's now-removed ads, but the archive does not detail the specific rules that have been violated.

The report explains that Trump's ads were usually only offered for a few days before they were removed, during which time Google was paid for hosting.

Last month, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey tweeted that the platform would ban all political advertising.

Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel said his company will review all ads on the platform, and while social media is being used to protect freedom of expression and democracy, we have recently seen ways to use these platforms to reduce media trust and incite online violence. , And amplifying misleading political information in elections.

Over the past few months, technology giants have positioned themselves on the debate about allowing political advertising to be organized on social media.

Facebook faces different pressures
Facebook has faced the most backlash - even from its employees - with its controversial decision to allow politicians to post their ads.

Although technology giants such as Facebook, Google and Twitter have the responsibility to organize and examine the facts that politicians say on their platform, they are also responsible for providing insight into the process through the Transparency Report.

At the moment, there is no way to know why Trump's ads are not appearing on YouTube.

Meanwhile, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview with CBS News on Monday that Donald Trump did not press him to dissuade him from banning political advertising on the social media platform during a secret meeting in October.

Zuckerberg said the discussion was about "some of the topics I read in the news about our work," but added that it was a "private dinner" and declined to share further details about the meeting.

Zuckerberg had previously defended the company's policy of displaying politicians' ads containing false or misleading claims, saying Facebook did not want to stifle political rhetoric.

Trump, who loudly supported political announcements, has repeatedly publicly criticized Facebook, accusing it of being biased in favor of Democrats.

The social media giant faced a barrage of criticism over privacy gaps, election-related activity and its dominance of online advertising, leading to calls for further antitrust investigations.