Facebook bans pro-Trump PAC from advertising

Facebook is banning ads from the Committee to Defend the President, a pro-Trump super PAC, a spokesperson for the platform told The Hill on Thursday.

“As a result of the Committee to Defend the President’s repeated sharing of content determined by third-party fact-checkers to be false, they will not be permitted to advertise for a period of time on our platform,” Andy Stone said in a statement.

Facebook declined to comment on how long the advertising ban, first reported by CNN, will last.

The Committee to Defend the President has come under criticism from Democrats who have accused it of misrepresenting and twisting words.

The group has nearly 1 million followers on Facebook and has invested hundreds of thousands of dollars on ads since 2018.

While politicians’ ads are not subject to Facebook fact-checking — a policy that has been criticized internally and externally — political groups are.

Facebook’s policy on banning advertisers says that “pages and websites that repeatedly share false news will have some restrictions, including having their distribution reduced.”

The move comes a day after the platform also removed a post from the president, citing “false claims” about the novel coronavirus.