Facebook fixes technical errors on political ads ahead of US election

Facebook acknowledged and fixed a tech error in its systems on Thursday that was affecting political ads from both Democrats and Republicans, improperly paused them.

The error stems from a policy change Facebook announced in early September to block any new political ads in the week prior to the US presidential election as part of a move for maximum transparency.

“While this impacted a small proportion of the ads about politics and social issues in our system, we regret any disruption in the delivery of these ads during this period,” the company said in a blog post.

The post said that the majority of political and issue ads had been unaffected and Facebook said it would continue to closely monitor to ensure that all of its fixes worked and ads were running as intended well in advance of the vote.

“We understand that time is of the essence at this stage of the campaign season. Most of the issues have been fully addressed but for any advertisers still facing issues, there are several steps they can take to help their ads reach people. They can also pause ads and resume them as long as those ads delivered an impression before the restriction took effect,” it added.

The disruption comes less than a week before the election. Numerous candidates rely on Facebook to target voters and donors with ads.

Political advertisers in the US have spent at least $264m on Facebook in the third quarter, or about 1.2% of the company’s revenue during the quarter, an analysis by CNBC showed.