Facebook removes Trump campaign ads

WASHINGTON: Facebook said it removed campaign ads for President Donald Trump which appeared to stoke fear by claiming that his Democratic rival Joe Biden would pose threats by allowing more immigration.

The move late on Wednesday marked the latest by the leading social network seeking to curb misinformation while seeking to steer clear of political involvement.The messages, which remained visible in the Facebook ad library, said Biden was “dangerous for America” and claimed the Democrat would allow a “surge” in immigration, suggesting this could increase coronavirus and security risks.

“We rejected these ads because we don’t allow claims that people’s physical safety, health, or survival is threatened by people on the basis of their national origin or immigration status,” Facebook said in a statement.

The ad rejection underscored the challenge for social platforms seeking to sift through mountains of false claims during a heated election campaign, many of which come from Trump.

Facebook earlier this year removed a Trump ad which contained a symbol used in Nazi Germany to designate political prisoners.

Separately, Facebook also said it was clarifying its rules on ads seeking to question the legitimacy of the electoral process amid the latest Trump comments suggesting he may not trust the ballot count.

“In addition to banning ads that make premature declarations of victory, we also won’t allow ads with content that seeks to delegitimize the outcome of the US election,” Facebook product manager Rob Leathern said.

“This would include calling a method of voting inherently fraudulent or corrupt, or using isolated incidents of voter fraud to delegitimize the result of an election.”

Facebook is also changing its policies to prevent ads that delegitimize election results, project manager Rob Leathern tweeted on Wednesday. Under the new policies, ads cannot prematurely declare victory, present any method of voting as fraudulent or corrupt, or make accusations of voter fraud. The changes to these policies apply to both Instagram and Facebook and apply immediately as of Wednesday, he said.

Following the removal of the ad on Wednesday, Courtney Parella of the Trump campaign doubled down on the advertisement’s claims in a statement. She did not cite the source of the 700% figure featured in the ad.

“While President Trump took decisive action to restrict travel from China to slow the spread of coronavirus and saved countless lives, Joe Biden was busy calling the president xenophobic and armchair quarterbacking his pandemic response,” she said.

The Biden campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment.Although Facebook removed the ads regarding refugees and Covid-19, other misleading advertisements remain on the platform. One ad shows Joe Biden with a headphone photoshopped to his ear, perpetuating the false claim that the presidential candidate somehow cheated in the debates.

The advertisement appears to have been launched on the day of the debate but remains active on the platform, with more than 800 versions still active. The ads have been viewed by more than 3.6 million people, the majority of whom are in the key election states of Florida and Pennsylvania, according to Facebook data.

The Trump campaign’s ads have led to the “earpiece” conspiracy theory spreading organically on other social media platforms, including TikTok, according to the watchdog group Media Matters. The group has found four examples of TikTok videos espousing the theory that have been viewed more than 560,000 times. A spokesperson for TikTok said the videos violate its policies on disinformation and it is working to remove them as they are posted.