Major social media political ads policies
A high-level overview of the major social media policies regarding political advertising.
Table of contents
Facebook (including Instagram)
See our assessement of the Facebook ads library.
See our assessement of the Twitter ads transparency center.
Google (including YouTube)
See our assessement of the Google transparency report.
Snapchat
Snapchat publishes a transparency report that is updated daily.
We found this archive to be easy to download and use. It contains metadata about the ads but not the media (video, picture or text). From daily downloads, we ran an analysis over the course of November 2019 that found no major inconsistencies (eg no duplication, no removed ads) and a few minor inconsistencies:
- A small minority of ads had inconsistent changes (on about 3000 ads, 5 had the changing field
startDate, 10 had a changing URL, 6 had a slightly decreasing print count). - About 15 ads were added to the archive as late as November 2019 while they were active from July 2019. The majority of the ads seem to be added to the archive in about a week.
- 709 ads have been removed from the archive November 5th but they appeared again 2 days later.
TikTok
TikTok declared on October 2019:
[…] we have chosen not to allow political ads on TikTok. Any paid ads that come into the community need to fit the standards for our platform, and the nature of paid political ads is not something we believe fits the TikTok platform experience. To that end, we will not allow paid ads that promote or oppose a candidate, current leader, political party or group, or issue at the federal, state, or local level – including election-related ads, advocacy ads, or issue ads.
Political ads are also listed as prohibited content in the advertising guidelines for US and EU.
TikTok releases regular transparency reports.
Tiktok made several annoucements documenting measures targeting misinformation:
- Building to support content, account, and platform integrity, 28 Jan 2020
- TikTok’s #MatKarForward initiative urges netizens to curb the spread of misinformation, 04 May 2020
- Supporting our community through Covid-19, 17 Jul 2020
Currently Whatsapp does not feature ads.
Tencent (WeChat, QQ, Qzone…)
In a controversy that occurred during the 2019 Canadian federal election, Tencent made the statement that it doesn’t accept political ads (source 1, source 2).
However the Tencent advertising terms makes no mention of restrictions on political content.
According to the Reddit Advertising Policy, the only restriction on political advertising is to include a “paid for by” disclosure. However, political advertising is allowed only in the US.
Reddit transparency reports include no information about political advertising.
Dailymotion
Dailymotion general terms and conditions and advertising terms and conditions make no mention of restrictions on political advertising.
Dailymotion publishes no transparency report.
LinkedIn advertising policy prohibits political advertising:
Political ads are prohibited, including ads advocating for or against a particular candidate or ballot proposition or otherwise intended to influence an election outcome.
Pinterest’s advertising policy prohibits political campaining:
We don’t allow advertising for:
- The election or defeat of political candidates running for public office
- Political parties or action committees
- Political issues with the intent to influence an election
- Legislation, including referendums or ballot initiatives
- Merchandise related to political candidates, parties, or elections
Telegram
Telegram states in its front page:
Telegram is free forever. No ads. No subscription fees.
Tumblr
Tumblr advertising policy makes no mention of restrictions on political advertising.
Reddit transparency reports include no information about political advertising.
Imgur
Imgur advertising policy makes no mention of restrictions on political advertising.
Imgur publishes no transparency report.