Facebook Social Issues Ads Ban Policy has been issued since the first days when Facebook Ads came into operation. This ban from Facebook targets election campaign organizations that are trying to direct and control audience votes on Facebook. If these were regular election announcement ads, nothing would happen. However, there have been some people using dark tricks using Facebook Ads to manipulate election results. Let’s learn about this ban and other important information in this article of mine.
Table of contents
What Are Facebook Social Issues Ads Ban?
Facebook Social Issues Ads Ban is one of the important Ads Policies for Social Issues Ads. In the current context, when many multi-party countries are using Facebook as a marketing tool for government elections. This policy applies in US, Brazil, India, Israel, Mexico and EU (All Member States of the European Union). More specifically, this ban is for the following types of election ads:
Ads prevent people from voting in elections
Facebook will restrict or block your ad account if your ad content contains elements that prevent people from voting (or have the implication of preventing people from voting) for a certain Party or Election Candidate. More specifically, if the ad portrays the act of voting as useless or meaningless, advising (or implying) that people should not vote. Facebook will directly reject that ad or block the account.
Ads featuring election questions
If your ad contains questions or asks your audience questions about the upcoming or ongoing election. Then that ad will have to receive a ban from Facebook. This is often seen in the Instant form of Facebook Lead Ads. This type of advertisement requires the audience to fill out a form to leave information, or answer questions that the advertiser asks in that form. If these questions are political and change the audience’s mind about the election, it will also be banned.
Ads have early claims of election victory
If the ad contains an announcement, a premature declaration of election victory. Then your Facebook Ad Account will also go away, and there will even be a situation where Facebook Page banned from advertising.
Normally, Facebook only accepts election campaign ads with media files, primary text, clear CTAs and transparent information. Ads related to future, ongoing or upcoming election topics will be reviewed very carefully and must go through Facebook’s rigorous review process.
Reason For Facebook Social Issues Ads Ban
To ensure fairness for the election. As well as ensuring transparency and integrity in elections. Facebook Social Issues Ads Ban was born and the ad review process is understandably longer than regular ads. Facebook ads related to election and political topics are the things that appear a lot on Newsfeed. And of course it influences the thinking and can change the voting decisions of a part of the audience (maybe more or less). According to a report from Forbes about Social Issues Ads on Facebook, Facebook encountered a few errors and mistakenly deleted many election ads of two candidates for US president, Joe Biden and Donald Trump, in 2016. And After launching Ad Library in 2018 (as well as releasing a series of information about election ads of these two candidates in the past), they received mixed reactions.
Facebook also received negative feedback because they also allowed politicians to run some fraudulent election ads. Therefore, Facebook could not lose their reputation, and the tightening of management as well as the Facebook Social Issues Ads Ban Policy was born.
How To Create Facebook Social Issues Ads Without Ban?
Although we know that running Facebook Social Issues Ads is very difficult, but difficulty does not mean impossible. If you still want to run election ads on Facebook in the country you are operating in, you can follow my specific instructions below. The content below is a guide on how to create Social Issues Ads without Ad Account Suspended Facebook.
Provide and verify ID with Facebook
You are required to provide and verify your identity to be able to run Facebook Social Issues Ads without ban. The two types of documents that Facebook will accept for verification and for you to set up Facebook Social Issues Ads are a government ID or 2 non-government IDs with the following conditions:
Government ID
You can send Facebook a government ID to confirm your identity or regain access to your account. Any documents you send to Facebook must include:
- Your name and date of birth/photo
- Some examples of government IDs we accept include:
- License
- ID card
- Passport
- Birth certificate
Non-governmental ID
If you do not have a government ID for your own reasons, you can also provide 2 non-government IDs for Facebook to verify, including:
- Non-governmental ID documents must include your name.
- At least 1 of the 2 documents must include your date of birth and/or photo.
- The names on the entries you submit must be the same as the names you want displayed on your profile.
Non-governmental ID documents that Facebook accepts include:
- Student card
- Library card
- Refugee card
- Verify employment
- Degree
- Loyalty card
If you accidentally lose your account, your advertising account is suspended, etc. And you need to appeal or take steps to recover your account. You can also provide other related documents to Facebook that match the information you initially provided.
ID requirements to run social issue ads
If you want to run ads about social issues, elections without Facebook bans Political Ads, you must meet the ID requirements you provide to Facebook including:
- Your ID must be from the country where you want to run ads, and the name of that country must appear on your ID.
- If your ID has an expiration date, it must not expire.
- Documents provided to Facebook must be clear, sharp, not glare, and not use information hiding techniques.
- Accepted ID types vary by country.
You can follow this link to learn more specific thing about this ID Authorizations Process. But in this case, you should contact directly to the Facebook Support Team in your region and discuss with them.
Understand Community Standards and Ads Policies
Although you have read about Facebook Social Issues Ads Policies above. But advertising on Facebook requires you to comply with the latest Community Standards and Meta Ads Policies. Therefore, you need to clearly understand both of these contents to avoid the situation of Facebook bans Political Advertising.
To learn about these two contents, visit this link. You can then access each topic to read the important content clearly. If you really understand all the specific rules that Facebook sets out for ads, continue with the following content sections.
Create Facebook Social Issues Ads
To create Facebook Social Issues Ads, visit Meta Ads Manager. Then click on the green (+Create) button as shown below:
After choosing Ad Objective and how to set up advertising elements. You will be taken to a screen to choose some basic criteria for your Ad Campaign. You need to tick on (Social issues, elections or politics) box:
After that, you can click (Next) and continue providing information such as Media Files, Ads Description, etc. as a regular advertisement to complete the Ads Campaign. Expert note: Facebook Social Issues Ads have a longer review time than regular ads, up to 72 hours.
Contact with Facebook Supporters in your area
Election ads, election campaigns, and vote campaigns are acceptable as long as they do not violate any Community Standards or Meta Ads Policies (and the Social Issues Ads Policies I mentioned above). However, this is a big budget ad and addresses an important national issue, so if you are looking to advertise on this topic, you need to be in regular contact with Facebook Supporters in your area.
Each country will have a separate Facebook support team. And they also really understand the context of election advertising and the purpose of those ads.
You should contact them regularly for support in testing ads and helping in a few important cases (maybe ID verification or setting up Facebook Social Issies Ads). In case a Facebook Social Issues Ads Ban situation occurs, they are also ready to resolve it for you.
You can visit https://www.facebook.com/business/help. To get started, visit Facebook’s Support Page. You can then open a Live Chat or send them an Email to inform them about upcoming election advertising plans. They will directly give advice and support all the useful things so that you do not encounter a Facebook Political Advertising Ban situation.
If the Facebook banned Political Ads situation still occurs, you can also contact them to complain or restore your account or restore your ads.
>>> Read more: Specific List Of Banned Words On Facebook In 2024 Updated
Recap
For the recap, You need to understand the important beliefs of the Facebook Social Issues Ads Ban as well as how to set up a political or election ad on Facebook with the ban. In order to have good techniques and knowledge in the future and not encounter advertising interruptions, advertising refusals or account suspensions. If you have tried everything but still cannot advertise properly. You can contact SpeedX Agency. We have a team of advertising experts ready to answer all your questions 24/7. Anyway, I sincerely thank you for reading the entire article.
