**Meta Prolongs Ban on New Election Ads for Additional Days**

Meta, the organization behind **Facebook** and **Instagram**, has revealed an extension of its prohibition on new election advertisements, which will now continue for a few extra days following the U.S. general election. As reported by **Axios**, Meta intends to maintain the blockage of political ads until the polls are closed and the votes are still being counted.

Since 2020, Meta’s advertising policy has restricted “new social issue, electoral, and political ads” during the last week leading up to the election. This extension serves to encompass the post-election phase, during which vote counting may still be in progress.

“Although new ads will not be permitted to run during this restriction period, ads that have received at least one impression prior to the imposition of the ban can continue to be displayed with limited editing options,” noted a **Facebook developer blog post**. The rationale for this restriction aligns with past practices: during the concluding days of an election, there may be insufficient time to fact-check or dispute new assertions made in advertisements.

Here are the critical dates for Meta’s ad prohibition:

– **From Tuesday, October 29, 2024, to Tuesday, November 5, 2024**: During this timeframe, new ads concerning social issues, elections, or politics will not be permitted to run in the U.S., commencing at 12:01 AM PT on October 29 and concluding at 11:59 PM PT on November 5.
– **Commencing Wednesday, November 6, 2024**: New advertisements on social issues, elections, or politics may be published once more, and advertisers will have the ability to modify their ads.

Misinformation continues to pose a major challenge for Meta. Recently, the company’s **Oversight Board**, comprising policymakers, academics, and journalists, raised “serious concerns” regarding Meta’s management of political content moderation. This came after an occurrence where the platform removed (and subsequently reinstated) a post that likened Democratic candidates Kamala Harris and Tim Walz to characters from the film *Dumb and Dumber*.

Election-related misinformation is an overarching issue beyond Meta. The **FBI** has recently released a warning about misleading videos disseminating false claims regarding the election. At the same time, on **X** (previously Twitter), the platform’s **Community Notes** feature has faced criticism for inadequately identifying election misinformation.

For additional insights into how other technology companies are tackling election misinformation, explore **OpenAI’s strategies for addressing misinformation on ChatGPT and Dall-E**.