In addition to banning political advertisements a week before the US elections, Facebook said it would ban political ads prematurely claiming a winner in the US elections to be held in November.

A Facebook spokesperson told Fast Company on Wednesday, September 23, “We will be rejecting political ads that claim victory before the results of the 2020 election have been declared.”

The policy update follows a September 3 post by Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, in which he said the social media giant would not publish political ads the week prior to the election as “in the final days of an election there may not be enough time to contest new claims.” (READ: Facebook to ban new political ads on cusp of US election)

Facebook also said it would add an “informational label” to posts seeking to spread doubt about the legitimacy of the election or the election’s outcome. It will also label posts from campaigns or candidates declaring victory before full results have been tallied.

Prior to this announcement, Facebook had no policy stopping any political campaign from using ads to falsely claim victory in an election. Without this policy in place, either presidential candidate could have easily begun claiming victory as early as November 4, once the ad ban was rescinded. – Rappler.com