A political group associated with former President Donald Trump is raking in cash using Facebook advertisements despite the social media platform’s ban of the former president.
Digital firm ACRONYM’s newsletter first reported on the ads. The newsletter pointed out Trump’s official campaign page, “Team Trump,” began running new political ads on the platform on June 18.
According to the newsletter, “The ads, which remained active as of June 21st, target Trump supporters nationwide for fundraising and regionally promote an upcoming rally in Ohio. They also slam President Biden and Vice President Harris in a similar way to the Trump campaign’s messaging during the 2020 election.”
Trump is supposedly banned from Facebook but through the "Team Trump" account is currently running ads for fundraising and promoting his upcoming rallies
— Judd Legum (@JuddLegum) June 21, 2021
HT: @FWIWnews pic.twitter.com/fLYChKbfLo
Trump’s political action committee, Save America, now owns the official Team Trump page, as the newsletter points out.
Axios notes, citing the site’s political ad archive, since Friday Team Trump has spent just over $3,500 on its new Facebook ad campaign.
“President Trump is suspended from Facebook, so he can’t post at all. Groups affiliated with the former president are not barred from posting on Facebook, so long as they are not posting in his voice,” Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone told Axios.
According to Axios, Stone also noted there were some ads from Team Trump that were rejected because they linked to Trump’s website.
Earlier this month, the social media giant announced Trump will be suspended from Facebook for at least two years, as IJR reported.
“Given the gravity of the circumstances that led to Mr. Trump’s suspension, we believe his actions constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols,” Facebook’s VP of Global Affairs, Nick Clegg, wrote in a blog post.
He continued, “We are suspending his accounts for two years, effective from the date of the initial suspension on January 7 this year.”
