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Google will no longer allow voters to be targeted by advertisers based on their political affiliation, the company has announced.<\/p>\nGoogle will no longer allow voters to be targeted by advertisers based on their political affiliation, the company has announced.<\/p>\n
Election audience advertisements will now be limited to the general categories of age, gender and general location.<\/p>\n
The tech giant said that the changes would be implemented in order to improve voter confidence in digital political advertising and international electoral processes.<\/p>\n
In a blogpost, Google Ads executive Scott Spencer, said that the company was \u201cclarifying\u201d its advertising policies to avoid material that could \u201csignificantly undermine participation or trust in the democratic process\u201d being posted on its platforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re proud that people around the world use Google to find relevant information about elections,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut given recent concerns and debates about political advertising, and the importance of shared trust in the democratic process, we want to improve voters\u2019 confidence in the political ads they may see on our ad platforms.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile we\u2019ve never offered granular microtargeting of election ads, we believe there\u2019s more we can do to further promote increased visibility of election ads.<\/p>\n
“That\u2019s why we\u2019re limiting election ads audience targeting to the following general categories: age, gender, and general location (postal code level).”<\/p>\n
Google says that it will begin enforcing the changes in the UK \u201cwithin a week,\u201d in time for the British General Election on December 12.<\/p>\n
The new policies would apply to all advertisers and content types including \u201cdeep fakes\u201d (doctored or manipulated media), misleading claims about the census process, and ads making \u201cdemonstrably false claims\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhether you\u2019re running for office or selling office furniture, we apply the same ads policies to everyone; there are no carve-outs,\u201d said Mr Spencer.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s against our policies for any advertiser to make a false claim\u2014whether it\u2019s a claim about the price of a chair or a claim that you can vote by text message, that election day is postponed, or that a candidate has died.\u201d<\/p>\n
He added that the company recognized that not all political claims could be adjudicated, but that the company would take appropriate action to preserve \u201crobust political dialogue.\u201d<\/p>\n
Google is the latest tech company to respond to growing scrutiny over online political advertising.<\/p>\n
Twitter recently launched a new tool on its platforms that enables people to report deliberately misleading details about the voting process, weeks after announcing a ban on political adverts.<\/p>\n
Rival social media firm Facebook has faced repeated calls to ban all political advertising after a number of misleading ads were taken down from the platform.<\/p>\n
Facebook admitted it is unable to track all political adverts on its platforms.<\/p>\n