By Aaron Miller-
Facebook will remove some ads run by President Donald Trump’s re-election campaign that it alleges has breached its policies to “prevent confusion around the official US census.”
Facebook had come under fire for allowing the Trump campaign to run ads this week on its platform asking people to “respond now” to an “Official Congressional District Census.” The posts were linked to a push-poll survey on the GOP fundraising site action.donaldjtrump.com, which also requests personal information for the campaign.
“This survey is essential to our team’s 2020 campaign strategy. We need Patriotic Americans like YOU to respond to this census, so we can develop a winning strategy for YOUR STATE,” some of the ads read.
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The questions on the survey include asking users about their views of President Trump as well as their age, name, and contact information. Also on the question list of the survey was what news outlets they read most, and if they “think Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Left are putting their personal anti-Trump agenda ahead of what’s best for the American people.”Trump’s campaign had sponsored and posted the misleading ads on 2 and 3 March, according to Facebook’s ad library, which archives political ads.
Facebook has been criticised by Democrats for its policy of not fact-checking ads run by politicians, a policy that Democrats say benefits Trump.
Facebook announced in December plans to combat misinformation about the 2020 census, including cracking down on posts that create confusion or discourage people from taking part in the count.
The U.S Census Bureau is scheduled to send out mailers about how to respond to the 2020 Census later this month. Earlier on Thursday House Speaker Nancy Pelosi criticised Facebook for allowing the Trump campaign to run the ads, citing a violation of Facebook’s misleading content policy regarding the census.
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“I’m particularly annoyed today the actions of Facebook,” Pelosi said at a press conference Thursday morning about the need to encourage all communities to participate in the upcoming census. She called the advertisement “an absolute lie. A lie that is consistent with the misrepresentation policy of Facebook.”
“I know that profit motive is their business model, but it should not come at the cost of the counting who is in our country, so that we can provide the services and the rest,” she added. “The beautiful diversity of America is what this administration fears. Facebook announced in December plans to combat misinformation about the 2020 census, including cracking down on posts that create confusion or discourage people from taking part in the count.
The US Census Bureau is scheduled to send out mailers about how to respond to the 2020 Census later this month.
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