Facebook announced this week that it will not accept new political or issues-based ads in the week leading up to the U.S. presidential election. The move comes in the wake of concerns that the social media giant will allow misinformation to spread on its platform as it did in 2016.

In the announcement, Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg proudly trumpeted the policy change while at the same time seeming to wish he didn’t have to do it at all.

“We’re going to block new political and issue ads during the final week of the campaign,” Zuckerberg wrote on his Facebook page. “It’s important that campaigns can run get out the vote campaigns, and I generally believe the best antidote to bad speech is more speech, but in the final days of an election there may not be enough time to contest new claims. So in the week before the election, we won’t accept new political or issue ads.”

However, there’s a major catch: Facebook will allow political ads placed prior to that week to continue to run. And since Facebook allows politicians to blatantly lie in those ads, it’s unclear what affect — if any — this splashy rule change will actually have.

Recommended Resources

The Choice of Tech Experts Worldwide. Try 90 days free of Bitdefender and experience the highest level of digital safety.

Surf the web truly incognito. Try Bitdefender Premium VPN, the ultra-fast VPN that keeps your online identity and activities safe from hackers, ISPs and snoops.

System Mechanic 14 – Make your computer run like new. Winner of 200+ Editor’s Choice awards!