Meta — the owner of Facebook and Instagram — will extend its block of election ads showing on its platforms for several more days past Tuesday's election, Axios reported Monday.
The tech giant originally said it would lift the ban of new election ads at 11:59 PT on Tuesday, after polls close in the West. However, Meta informed its advertising partners on Monday that it will continue to block ads to avoid confusion while ballots are still being counted.
The result of the election between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris is not expected to be called Tuesday.
Meta first blocked political ads in the week leading up to Election Day in 2020, later adjusting to pause all political-related ads until after the polls closed on Election Day, Nov. 3.
"The rationale behind this restriction period remains the same as previous years – in the final days of an election, we recognize there may not be enough time to contest new claims made in ads," Facebook wrote in its decision.
This time, Meta is just banning new political ads until they lift the restriction sometime in the days following Tuesday's election, according to the report.
Fellow tech giant Google announced last month that it would block election ads from running on its platform after the last polls close Tuesday in order to prevent misinformation about voting or candidates running ads claiming victory, Axios reported Oct. 17.