Meta will allow political ads on its platforms to question the outcome of the 2020 US presidential election, part of a rollback in election-related content moderation among major social media platforms over the past year ahead of the 2024 US presidential contest.
The policy means that Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, will be able to directly profit from political ads that boost false claims about the legitimacy of the 2020 election. While the company will allow political advertisements to claim that past elections, including the 2020 presidential race, were rigged, it will prohibit those that “call into question the legitimacy of an upcoming or ongoing election.”
The change is part of a year-old policy update but has not been widely reported. The Wall Street Journal reported Meta’s ads policy change earlier Wednesday.
There seems to be a lot of companies going the CBS route when it comes to stuff like this, except they’re just not willing to admit it publicly. The underlying point is still the same though: “Yeah, we tried doing the whole ‘responsible civic duty’ thing, then we realized that allowing morons to spread bullshit makes us a fuckton more cash, so we’re going with that.”
“Yeah, we destroyed everything, but for one, shining moment, we created a lot of value for our shareholders!”