Facebook announces new ads policy for a section of news publishers

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Facebook on Tuesday announced a new policy on ads by news publications that are connected with political entities.

The social media giant’s new policy is designed considering the upcoming U.S. presidential election, and prevents publishers in the U.S. from claiming the news exemption within its ads authorization process.

“News Pages with these affiliations will not be eligible for inclusion in Facebook News, and they won’t have access to news messaging on the Messenger Business Platform or the WhatsApp business API,” Facebook said in a statement.

The company further stated that pages from publishers with political ties will continue to be allowed to register as a news page and advertise on Facebook even when the new policy restrictions are in place.

With over 2.7 billion monthly active users as of the second quarter of 2020, Facebook is the biggest social network worldwide, according to statistics firm Statista.

The policy focuses on news publishers linked to organisations that can primarily engage in the influence of public policy or elections, on its platform, Facebook said.

“Identifying politically connected publishers is a new process for us, and we will learn and adapt as needed,” it added.