Google's limits on microtargeting of political ads for state and federal candidates shakes up ad plans and frustrates both Democrats and Republicans
but it's a secret April Glaser / Slate : Will Google's Changes to Political Ads Hurt Democrats or Republicans More? Washington Post : Google's new political ad rules unite Democratic and Republican campaigns in opposition Victoria Song / Gizmodo : Google Will Restrict Political Ads Worldwide Starting in 2020 Phil Muncaster / infosecurity-magazine.com : Google's Updated Political Ads Policy Puts Pressure on Facebook Julia Carrie Wong / The Guardian : Google latest tech giant to crack down on political ads as pressure on Facebook grows Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed News : “Nothing Is Off The Table” For Facebook As Google And Twitter Crack Down On Political Ads Colin Barry / KnowTechie : Google is tightening up its political ad policies Napier Lopez / The Next Web : Facebook considers political ad limits after Twitter and Google take action Shereesa Moodley / Memeburn : Google bans political advertising just before the UK general election Adrian Potoroaca / TechSpot : Google outlines new, restrictive political ads policy that limits microtargeting Jason England / Android Central : Google places more limitations on political ads ahead of elections Usman Khan Lodhi / Neowin : Google no longer permits political ad targeting based on leaning and voter records Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Roundtable : Google Ads To Limit Targeting & Content Options For Political Ads In US Andrew Wyrich / The Daily Dot : Google announces new limits for political advertising Chris Merriman / Inquirer : Google will crack down on the micro-targeting of political ads Silicon Republic : Google to crack down on political ads to ‘improve voter confidence’ Tweets: Emily Bell / @emilybell : Yesterday #Google updated its political advertising policy to supposedly stop disinfo https://blog.google/... and then today it sold an ad to the Conservative Party pretending to be Labour....which is STILL in its search results - below *above the Wikipedia entry* 🤷♀️ https://twitter.com/... @fbnewsroom : Our statement on Google's political ad news: For over a year, we've provided unprecedented transparency into all US federal & state campaigns & we prohibit voter suppression in all ads. As we've said, we are looking at different ways we might refine our approach to political ads. Walter Isaacson / @walterisaacson : John Stuart Mill, O W Holmes, and Wm Douglas defended free speech by invoking the “marketplace of ideas” where people could challenge each other. Micro-targeting thwarts this marketplace. Platforms should run political ads but not allow narrow targeting https://www.wsj.com/... Ellen L Weintraub / @ellenlweintraub : Google's reach is wider than you might think; this policy extends to @Google search ads, @YouTube ads, & their huge display-ad business. The plan kicks off next week in the UK, by the end of the year in the EU, and on Jan. 6, 2020 everywhere else. https://blog.google/... 2/9 Tarleton Gillespie / @tarletong : Great, but still, what counts as “political”? Notice: the headline says a new policy on “political ads,” but in the details it's limits on “election ads.” Easier to define, but this lets all sorts of other “political” advertising slide. https://www.blog.google/... Squawk Box / @squawkcnbc : After Google's ad policy change announced last night, Facebook is “caught in the squeeze as the only company that's allowing false ads. It's not a great look for them and it actually draws them into the political problems without any benefit whatsoever,” says @karaswisher. https://twitter.com/... Rasmus Kleis Nielsen / @rasmus_kleis : Wouldn't be surprised if Facebook ends up adopting similar position. 1) limit targeting+tighten rules, 2) continue to allow political ads (which politicians want and it makes $) 3) make very small, very targeted sometimes problematic ad buys that make very little $ less useful https://twitter.com/... Shane Goldmacher / @shanegoldmacher : This Google political ad policy change is significant and ricocheting across the political world https://blog.google/... Damian Collins / @damiancollins : Big step by Google on restricting targeting tools for political ads. Facebook should follow this and remove tools such as ‘lookalike audiences’ for political campaigns, as well as agreeing to act against disinformation ads and removing known ‘deep fakes’ https://twitter.com/... Glyn Moody / @glynmoody : micro-targeting on the way out: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/ ... https://twitter.com/... Jillian D'Onfro / @jillianiles : Google political ads update: Election ad targeting now limited to age, gender, and general location. Also, more explicitly prohibiting ads w deep fakes, misleading claims about the census process, or w/ “demonstrably false claims” on an electoral process https://blog.google/... Mark Bergen / @mhbergen : So Google's delay on political ads may be that it was updating its *entire* ads policies: bans ‘deep fakes’ and ‘demonstrably false claims’ about politics. Story (more coming soon) https://www.bloomberg.com/... Google post https://www.blog.google/... Luca Hammer / @luca : Google reduces the targeting options for political ads to age, gender and postal code. This applies to YouTube as well. https://blog.google/... Teddy Schleifer / @teddyschleifer : This is good news for candidates with more money who can “afford” to be inefficient. Bad news for those with less money that *need* micro-targeting more. https://blog.google/... Brad Todd / @bradonmessage : In mega markets like SoCal, NY, and Chicago, @google has just ensured that (even primary) voters will learn far less about their candidates. Much more consequential move than @Twitter's ban because real people are not on Twitter. https://twitter.com/... Rat King / @mikeisaac : this, fwiw, has been FB's talking point for a while — limiting microtargeting will F over the little guys @indianexpress : Google said while it has never allowed any advertiser — including politicians — to make false assertions, it was clarifying its policy to explicitly ban ads that make “false claims that could undermine participation of trust” in the election process http://bit.ly/2rdVbKE Zach Montellaro / @zachmontellaro : A potential unintentional consequence of the new Google ad targeting policy? It could negatively affect downballot and insurgent candidates a lot more than presidential ones (or well heeled incumbents). My story on the early reaction https://www.politico.com/... Chris Wilson / @wilsonwpa : This is sad. It's bad for democracy and the winners are: -platforms (make more $) -incumbents (harder for challenger candidates) -millionaire candidates (they can afford big, non targeted buys) Losers: -the voters https://twitter.com/... @longhornderek : This is a really dumb move. Candidates running in primaries are now supposed to advertise to people who aren't even in the party they are affiliated with? https://twitter.com/... Sara Fischer / @sarafischer : 🚨NEW—Google is making changes to its political ad policy to limit micro-targeting Why it matters: Comes weeks after Twitter said it's banning political ads. FB VP Carolyn Everson told me Monday FB still considering changes to its policy. Story on @axios: https://www.axios.com/... Judd Legum / @juddlegum : According to this report, Google will prohibit political ads with “demonstrably” false claims, leaving Facebook as the only major social network that allows lies in ads https://twitter.com/... Shane Goldmacher / @shanegoldmacher : Story with @daiwaka: Google's new political ad policy leaves campaigns scrambling “It eliminates our ability to target based on any personal information” https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... Jon Henshaw / @henshaw : “No political ads” - @Twitter “We're limiting election ads audience targeting to the following general categories: age, gender, and general location” - @Google Your move @Facebook https://blog.google/... Tara Walpert Levy / @tarawlevy : Greater targeting restrictions for election ads and clarifications of our misrepresentation policy to help ensure ongoing confidence in what voters see on our platforms. https://blog.google/... Elizabeth C. McLaughlin / @ecmclaughlin : Your move, Facebook. https://twitter.com/... David Rothschild / @davmicrot : Google controls somewhere between 35-40% of US digital ad revenue https://www.blog.google/... it is slightly less than 2x Facebook. Their decisions to limit targeting and prohibit “demonstrably false claims” is very significant for how the market will go. Rat King / @mikeisaac : Facebook has been dropping sideways hints for two weeks that it was going to limit microtargeting but hasn't really come out with anything yet google getting the jump on them with at least some limitations on political ads probably no bueno for FB https://www.nytimes.com/... https://twitter.com/... J. Nathan Matias / @natematias : Google has announced its advertising policies for the upcoming UK election, in the EU, and into 2020. They are underlining their policy against false ads and restrictions on the characteristics where they will allow targeting https://www.blog.google/... Julia Rosen / @juliarosen : This basically makes spend on the Google ad network (a HUGE portion of the internet) nearly as dumb as broadcast tv ads. https://www.blog.google/... David Dayen / @ddayen : They could, hear me out, ban all ad targeting https://www.axios.com/... @steveolson : Well, this is a BFD... Google is now limiting political ad targeting to age, gender, ZIP, and context... https://www.blog.google/... Laura Olin / @lauraolin : Google announcing a shift political ad policy after 10 hours of impeachment hearings and before a presidential debate is the industry equivalent of a Friday news dump https://blog.google/... https://twitter.com/... See also Mediagazer
Context & Ripple Effects
Google is capping targeting for state and federal candidate ads to age, gender, and general location while banning demonstrably false claims and deepfakes, and the rare result is bipartisan anger: Democratic and Republican ad planners alike say the change wrecks strategies built on narrow voter segments. The move lands amid a broader accountability cycle — an activist had already [[a:947348|registered as a 2022 California gubernatorial candidate purely to run false ads testing Facebook's policies]], and Guardian coverage frames Google's decision squarely as pressure piling onto Facebook.
The timing matters because independent visibility into platform politics was already eroding: researchers reported months earlier that Facebook had weakened or disabled the tools they use to track political ads just as 2020 spending ramped up. Google restricting targeting while outside oversight shrinks leaves both parties flying blind into a changed marketplace.
First-order effects
- Democratic and Republican campaigns must rebuild ad plans around broad demographic buys, devaluing the microtargeting expertise their digital consultants were hired for weeks before primary season.
Second-order effects
- Advertisers quickly find a workaround — spots bought with their own first-party targeting data slip past Google's category limits, turning the policy into an arms race between platform rules and campaign data operations.
Third-order effects
- If the loophole forces Google to either enforce harder or accept erosion, and blunt bans later hamstrung campaign fundraising windows ahead of the midterms, the structural lesson is that platform-set political ad rules trade persuasion efficiency for arbitrary-seeming disruptions — pushing the industry toward broadcast-style reach governed by each platform's own enforcement choices.
The trend: Major ad platforms are retreating from microtargeted political persuasion toward broad, TV-style delivery under public pressure, with enforcement gaps and blanket restrictions defining what campaigns can actually do.