Google lifting ban on political ads instituted after Capitol riots

Google will lift the political ad ban it instituted after last month’s deadly insurrection at the Capitol, the company confirmed to The Hill.

The platform’s “sensitive events” policy went into effect  Jan. 13, a week after the riot. The company had instituted a similar ad freeze after the general election last November.

“Starting on Wednesday, we will be lifting our Sensitive Events policy to again allow advertisers to run political ads,” a Google spokesperson told The Hill on Monday. “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.”

Political advertisers will have to use the search giant’s self-service appeals tool to have their existing ads reviewed again and listed, according to an email from Google obtained by The Hill.

Google is one of the two dominant digital advertising platforms, along with Facebook.

Facebook has yet to lift the political advertising ban that it implemented ahead of the election.