Google updates election advertising policy to restrict audience targeting

Ad policy will 'help promote trust in electoral processes worldwide'

Google has updated its political advertising policy, restricting advertisers' from targeting voters based on public records or general political affiliations.

Advertisers can still target people based on gender, age, and postal code, according to the company.

"We're making a few changes to how we handle political ads on our platforms globally. 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," Scott Spencer, vice president of product management for ads, said in a blog post.

Under the new rules, Google will remove access to the valuable Customer Match tool, which allows advertisers to combine their own data with that of Google's to target audiences more precisely.

The Alphabet unit said it will also ban digitally doctored videos and images or deepfakes, as well as false claims that could undermine people's trust in an electoral process. The company noted, however, that it would be difficult to verify every claim made in an ad.

Google will not ban advertisers from doing contextual targeting, such as serving ads to people watching a certain video or reading a particular story.

Google's latest decision on political advertising comes at a time when social media companies are facing criticism from regulators and advocacy groups over handling of political advertising ahead of the presidential election in the US next year.

Facebook is being criticised for its decision to not fact-check political ads on its platform, although Twitter announced last month that it would ban almost all political ads starting 22nd November.

Twitter's new policy bars all elected officials, political candidates and parties from advertising on its platform, although it allows some not-for-profit organisations to publicise messages about social issues.

Google said its updated policy will go into effect in the UK within a week (ahead of the General Election). In the EU, it will be implemented by the end of the year, and in the rest of the world by 6th January 2020.

Just last week, the company also announced a plan to limit advertisers' access to user data, in an attempt to better protect people's privacy.

Google said starting from February, it will no longer provide information to ad buyers about the type of content on a website or page where an advertisement could be placed.