Political advertisements on social media and online in general are old news. While in the past, the main outlet for political debate and commentary were public places, newspapers, and television, modern-day political ads are gradually shifting to social media platforms. Given that people spend less time than ever outside, expect to see even more ads, including political ones, in 2020 than ever before on Facebook and Instagram. But before you get upset and consider deleting your Facebook account permanently, continue reading.
Unlike in the previous years, you now have a choice if you don’t want to see political advertisements on your newsfeed - Facebook and Instagram recently added the ability to manage and remove political ads, and we'll show you how to navigate this new feature on the social media platform.
A New Feature
Two weeks ago, Mark Zuckerburg, CEO of Facebook issued a statement where he reviewed several new features available to Facebook users, including the possibility to remove political ads. In that statement, he addresses the ongoing 2020 elections in the United States, and writes, "And for those of you who've already made up your minds and just want the election to be over, we hear you — so we're also introducing the ability to turn off seeing political ads".
This new feature has been available for some Facebook users since June 17, 2020, and news outlets report that soon everyone will be able to manage their political ads on Facebook, too. Apart from ads by political candidates, any social issue ads from political candidates and any other candidate-funded ads will also fall under the “political ads” category and will be customizable.
Navigating this new feature on Facebook is easy and you already know how to do it if you know how to manage Facebook ads in general. There are two ways you can remove a political Facebook ad from your feed:
- Find the specific ad you’d like to get rid of in your newsfeed and remove it the same way you would remove a regular Facebook ad. If you’re not sure how it’s done, follow these instructions:
1. Click on the three dots in the upper right corner of the ad.
2. A popup menu with the options "Hide Ad", "Report Ad", and an option to turn off any future political ads will appear. Select the last option to deactivate all future political ads from your feed.
- The second method you can use to deactivate political ads from your feed is through your settings. To do so, follow these instructions:
1. Open the page menu by clicking on three horizontal lines if using the mobile app or the triangle in the top right corner of the screen.
2. Open the "Settings". In the "Ads" section and tap on "Ad Preferences".
3. Go to "Hide Ad Topics", select "Social Issues, Electronics, and Politics" and tap on "See fewer ads about this topic".
After that, you're pretty much done. We hope you found this information helpful!
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