Google will block election ads after polls close on Nov. 3
The move is meant to help avoid confusion on Election Day.
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Google plans to broadly block ads related to the US election after polls close on Nov. 3, the tech giant confirmed to CNET. Google sent an email to advertisers on Friday saying it will implement its sensitive event policy for political ads in order to avoid confusion, according to Axios, which obtained a copy of the email.
Google said in the email that its taking this step due to "an unprecedented amount of votes will be counted after Election Day this year," according to Axios. The policy will block ads referencing candidates, the election, or the election results. It will also apply more broadly to ads that reference federal or state elections and ads that are targeting election-related search queries such as candidates.
The policy will apply across all of Google's ad platforms, including Google Ads, DV360, YouTube and AdX Authorized Buyer. It's unclear when the block will be lifted.
Google isn't the only tech giant limiting political ads around the election. Twitter last year barred some types of political ads, and Facebook earlier this month said it will limit political ads in the week before the US election. Facebook will also reportedly reject ads from political campaigns that declare victory before official results are available.