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Google will lift ban on political ads this week

The search giant blocked political ads on its platforms in the wake of the Capitol riot.

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Members of the National Guard continue to stand watch along the temporary security fence that surrounds the US Capitol. 

Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Google is set to resume accepting political ads on all its platforms after temporarily blocking them following the US Capitol riot in January. The search giant will allow advertisers to run political ads starting Wednesday, which was earlier reported by Axios.

"Starting on Wednesday, we will be lifting our Sensitive Events policy to again allow advertisers to run political ads," said a spokesperson for the company in an emailed statement. "We will continue to rigorously enforce our ads policies, which strictly prohibit demonstrably false information that could significantly undermine trust in elections or the democratic process."

Google previously banned political ads after the November election to limit the spread of misinformation, but that restriction was lifted in December. The search giant then again blocked political ads on its platforms on Jan. 13, saying restrictions under its sensitive event policy would be in place until at least Jan. 21. The company said at the time it was putting a "temporarily pause all political ads in addition to any ads referencing impeachment, the inauguration, or protests at the US Capitol."

Facebook also temporarily stopped running political ads in the US after polls closed on Nov. 3, which reportedly remains in place.