Google bans political advertising just before the UK general election

Following Twitter’s recent ban on political advertising, Google on Wednesday announced updates to its own policies surrounding the matter.

According to the updates, Google will now restrict political entities from targeting ads on its platforms in an attempt to “improve voters’ confidence in the political ads they may see”.

“That’s why we’re limiting election ads audience targeting to the following general categories: age, gender, and general location,” the company explained on its website.

This means that political ads on Google can only be targeted to audiences according to how old they are and where they are from.

“This will align our approach to election ads with long-established practices in media such as TV, radio, and print, and result in election ads being more widely seen and available for public discussion,” Google continued.

Additionally, however, the company also noted that political advertisers will still be able to target “contextual” ads based on the content users read about often.

Google will begin implementing the new rules ahead of the UK’s upcoming General Election.

The policies will affect advertisers globally by 6 January 2020.

Feature image: Shereesa Moodley/Memeburn