Scores of political groups sidestepped Facebook’s ad ban

Political campaigns are cheering the return of political ads to Facebook this week. But some groups never stopped running them.

Scores of right- and left-wing political groups purchased tens of thousands of dollars in political ads that broke the company’s rules between January and March this year, according to an analysis by POLITICO.

These paid-for messages include those from a union-linked group that peppered swing states with political ads ahead of November’s election, as well as from Turning Point USA, the conservative student group with close ties to the MAGA movement.

Facebook ended its 18-week ban of political ads on Thursday. The company has said it will continue to evaluate whether further changes to its political ad policies are needed.

But the ongoing ability for overtly political groups to sidestep the company’s checks — put in place a week before November’s election to combat misinformation — raises questions about how Facebook will police ads on its platform.

A POLITICO analysis of Facebook’s political ad database found groups like WorkMoney, a nonprofit whose founder has close ties with the Services Employees International Union, continued to buy ads on Facebook without noting their political content. Facebook both requires advertisers to disclose political ads they place and independently identifies and flags political ads.

In multiple instances, Facebook retroactively labeled these ads as political and removed them from online circulation, including some that POLITICO flagged to the company.

“What’s going on is a straight gaming of Facebook’s system,” said Laura Edelson, a researcher at New York University, who has tracked political advertising on Facebook across multiple elections in the United States and overseas.

“If you’re a political advertiser, you now have less competition because of the ongoing ban,” she added. “So if you’re willing for your ads to get caught and then just run them again, this is a good strategy.”

Since mid-January, WorkMoney bought more than $100,000 worth of political ads — ranging from messages asking people to sign petitions for Covid-19 legislation to online sweepstakes that included questions about whether lawmakers should pass more stimulus relief — the majority of which ran without political disclosures. The group was one of the top five of political ad buyers over that period. POLITICO informed Facebook about the activity in mid-February and the ads stopped running Feb. 26.

WorkMoney and SEIU say they are not affiliated, and the nonprofit claims to be non-partisan. But the group has publicly backed Biden’s Covid-19 recovery plans after criticizing those of Donald Trump.

Carrie Joy Grimes, WorkMoney’s founder, told POLITICO that Facebook had incorrectly labeled her group’s efforts to communicate with its members.

“These are not political ads. Facebook's ads ban was meant to protect democracy, not prevent it,” she wrote in an email.

Facebook said in a statement that WorkMoney’s political ads should not have appeared on the platform. Facebook also labeled these messages as political in nature despite the organization’s claims they were not. “Enforcement is not perfect and we are always working to improve our systems,” said spokesperson Claudia Parazzoli.

The total spend on political ads on Facebook between Jan. 31 and March 1, the latest figures available, was $3.1 million, according to Facebook data. That reflects both ad buys from overtly political groups and those by other organizations that were tagged with that label because they discussed socially divisive topics like climate change or race.

Even so, that’s a drastic drop from the sums spent ahead of November’s election. In October alone, political ad spend on Facebook was just under $200 million, based on a review of the company’s online database.

WorkMoney was one of many political groups circumventing Facebook’s rules.

Turning Point USA and other rightwing groups also bought ads promoting their political merchandise, with many of these messages either not running with required disclaimers or not tagged as political by Facebook.

That includes Turning Point USA ads that appeared on Facebook on March 2 promoting t-shirts emblazoned with “Kiss me, I’m a capitalist,” and “Convervative.” Previous ads with those slogans were eventually labeled as political by Facebook and added to its archive of partisan messages.

“Turning Point is a PAC. All of its ads are political,” said Edelson, the NYU researcher.

Turning Point USA said that because of Facebook’s political ad ban, the group focused its ad purchasing to promote its merchandising. “If and when an ad was not approved, TPUSA complied and pivoted its messaging to ensure compliance,” spokesperson Andrew Kolvet added.