• by Karlene Lukovitz , February 23, 2021

Effective Feb. 24, Google will end the pause on political ads that it implemented on Jan. 13, following the Jan. 6 insurrectionist attack on the U.S. Capitol, to reduce the potential for spreading false and misleading information.

“Starting on Wednesday, we will be lifting our Sensitive Events policy to again allow advertisers to run political ads,” Google said in a 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 emailed advertisers to inform them that they can resume running ads, including in election-related search inquiries, that mention a current state or federal officeholder or candidate, or political party or ballot measure, or reference federal or state elections.

Advertisers will need to use the self-service appeals tool in the Google portal to have existing ads reviewed again and listed, reported Axios.

"If they are otherwise policy compliant, then our reviewers will approve the ad and it will be eligible to begin serving,” Facebook said in the email to advertisers.

Google also paused election advertising after the November election, resuming it about a month later.

Facebook has not yet lifted the political advertising ban it implemented prior to the election.