Google is halting all political ads following Capitol Hill riots yet again

Google has suspended political advertising on its platform yet again. This happened for the second time within a short span of time. They are expanding the enforcement of its sensitive event policy as of January 14^th. This hold is applicable for the ads reference impeachment.

According to the reports by Axios, the reasons behind this step are the upcoming inauguration of the President-elect John Biden and the riots that erupted at the US Capitol last week. A spokesperson from Google has told Engadget that they are regularly pausing the ads which could spread misleading information when an unpredictable or a sensitive event is about to be held. In this case, the step was taken to avoid ads exploiting the inauguration of the next US president. The spokesperson went on to add that they the Google is strict when it comes to the content which is attempting to spread hatred within the communities by promoting the violence and they are quick to identify and block them. “Google is vigilant and is on alert on any ads that cross the line” he ended his statement adding this point.

Let us remind you that Google previously imposed a ban on political ads during November last year when the polls of the Presidential election were closed. The ban went active till December 10^th. This time it is not clear how long this ban is going to last, as the situation is not 100% under control yet. It could be a week, two weeks or more. Google will continue to monitor the situation of the country before making its ads go live.

Google halted the political contributions from its NetPAC political action organization following the insurrection. Facebook, Microsoft, Verizon and many more companies also have taken this step.

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