Google to Restrict Political Ad Targeting on Its Platforms
November 20 2019 - 6:10PM
Dow Jones News
By Patience Haggin
Alphabet Inc.'s Google said Wednesday it plans to stop allowing
highly targeted political ads on its platform, a move that comes as
tech giants are drawing scrutiny for their rules on political
advertising.
Google will roll out the ban within a week in the U.K., in
advance of a Dec. 12 general election. The ban will take effect in
the European Union by the end of the year and in the rest of the
world on Jan. 6, the company said in a blog post.
Under the new policy, political ads can only be targeted based
on users' age, gender and location at the postal code-level.
Political advertisers will still be allowed to use contextual
targeting, such as serving ads to users reading about a particular
topic.
The company imposed certain regulations on political advertising
for U.S. federal races last year. It will expand those existing
regulations to cover U.S. state-level candidates and officeholders,
ballot measures and ads that mention federal or state political
parties.
The Google policy changes follow calls for regulation of
political advertising online, including from Federal Election
Commission Chairwoman Ellen Weintraub.
The new targeting policy will apply to ads on Google Search,
YouTube and ads purchased on sites across the web through Google's
ad-buying software.
(More to come.)
Write to Patience Haggin at patience.haggin@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
November 20, 2019 18:55 ET (23:55 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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