Facebook to halt new political ads just before US election

Facebook Inc said on Thursday it would stop accepting new political ads in the week before the US presidential election in November, bowing to concern that its loose approach to free speech could once again be exploited to interfere with the vote.

The world’s biggest social network also said it was creating a label for posts by candidates or campaigns that try to claim victory before the election results are official and widening the criteria for content to be removed as voter suppression.

Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post announcing the changes that he was concerned about the unique challenges voters would face due to the coronavirus pandemic, which has prompted a surge in voting by mail.