From Facebook to Twitter: How social media platforms handle political ads
Online platforms including Facebook and Alphabet Inc's Google face growing pressure to stop carrying political ads that contain false or misleading claims ahead of the US presidential election. In the United States, the Communications Act prevents broadcast stations from rejecting or censoring ads from candidates for federal office once they have accepted advertising for that political race, although this does not apply to cable networks like CNN, or to social media sites, where leading presidential candidates are spending millions to target voters in the run-up to the November 2020 election. The following is how social media platforms have decided to handle false or misleading claims in political ads: Facebook Facebook exempts politicians from its third-party fact-checking program, allowing them to run ads with false claims. The policy has been attacked by regulators and lawmakers who say it could spread misinformation and cause voter suppression. Critics including