Facebook is taking down Census ads that redirect to President Donald Trumpās campaign website following push back from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.).
On Thursday, Facebook emailed a statement about the ads in the wake of Pelosiās press conference. In addition to being scrutinized by Pelosi, Facebook also received an emailed complaint from Vanita Guptaāpresident of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights.
The social network confirmed its intent to remove the ads āprevent confusion around the official U.S. Census.ā
Facebook said in the statement that the ads violated their Census policy, āThere are policies in place to prevent confusion around the official U.S. Census and this is an example of those being enforced.ā
Reports have indicated that over 1,000 ads were circulating on Facebook for Trumpās campaign.
Facebookās decision to remove Trumpās ads follows Pelosiās speech on Thursday. As previously reported on IJR, the House speaker criticized the ads and the social network for allowing the ads to circulate.
According to The New York Times, the ad read, āPresident Trump needs you to take the Official 2020 Congressional District Census today. We need to hear from you before the most important election in American history,ā the ad said. The campaign asked followers to ārespond NOWā to help our campaign messaging strategy, with an appeal to text āTRUMP to 8022.ā
While the ads were labeled U.S. Census, Pelosi argued the werenāt official ads.
āWeāre very concerned about what Facebook has done.Ā Facebook has something with the authority of the President of the United States, faking its way into looking like something to do with the Census. It is not,ā Pelosi said on Thursday.
She continued, āAnd when we ā they were asked, they said it was consistent with their policy, even though it was a false transmission.Ā It wasnāt an official Census.ā