Google is going to ban political ads that target users based on their public voting records or political affiliations.
Instead, election ads on Google search, YouTube, and over the company's display ad network, will only be able to target users based on their age, gender and zip code, the company said in a blog post on Wednesday.
The company is making the change, pointing to "recent concerns and debates" concerning political advertising. The scrutiny has focused on Facebook and how the social network is permitting political candidates to run ads free of any fact-checking.
Under Facebook's policies, political advertisers can also "microtarget" specific users with ads while everyone else will never encounter the content. Critics, including the chairwoman of the Federal Election Commission, say this is a problem: It means a political ad can potentially spread falsehoods to certain voters completely unchallenged by the rest of the public.
In Google's case, the company says it never allowed "granular microtargeting" of political ads. Nevertheless, it did offer ad buyers the option of targeting users based on their public voting record or political affiliation such as "left-leaning, right-leaning, and independent."
To determine the affiliation, Google told PCMag the company looked at the personal information users added to their Google accounts, "data from advertisers that partner with Google, and Google's estimation of their interests." (If that sounds creepy, you can control or opt out of the the ad personalization.)
But now the company plans on removing the targeting options within week, first starting in the UK, before Google rolls out the restrictions across the globe in January. The company is doing so to help ensure the public-at-large can easily see what political ads are being run over the internet.
"Regardless of the cost or impact to spending on our platforms, we believe these changes will help promote confidence in digital political advertising and trust in electoral processes worldwide," wrote Google vice president Scott Spencer in the blog post.
The company is also restricting what falsehoods can be run over a political ad. Google plans on clarifying that it'll no longer accept ads that contain doctored or manipulated media, such as AI-generated video. Ads that try to mislead about the census process or discourage people from trusting or voting in an election are now explicitly banned.
But don't expect Google to crack down on any political ads that contain controversial claims, exaggerations, or even lies. "Of course, we recognize that robust political dialogue is an important part of democracy, and no one can sensibly adjudicate every political claim, counterclaim, and insinuation," Spencer added. "So we expect that the number of political ads on which we take action will be very limited —but we will continue to do so for clear violations."
Google issued the blog post as Facebook is also reportedly considering a ban that'll prevent political ads from targeting specific users. However, President Donald Trump's re-election campaign appears to be against such a ban.
Twitter, on the other hand, recently decided to end all political advertising from candidates, parties and political groups.