Google reportedly lifting political ad ban ahead of Georgia runoffs

The ban on political ads that Google put into place for the 2020 election is reportedly being lifted.

The company on Wednesday told advertising partners its ban on political advertising will be lifted on Thursday, Axios reports. The ban was implemented after polls closed last month, with Google saying it was doing so to "limit the potential for ads to increase confusion post-election." Facebook also instituted a political ad ban.

But even after President-elect Joe Biden was projected as the winner in the election, both Facebook and Google said they would extend the bans. This prompted complaints from both Democrats and Republicans looking to advertise ahead of the key Georgia runoff elections scheduled for January, which will decide control of the Senate.

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Because of these ad bans, most of the advertising money in the runoffs "has been channeled into local broadcast ads," Axios reports. Facebook hasn't said when it might lift its own ban, but Politico's Elena Schneider wrote that Google's decision "will be key for" the Georgia runoffs, as it leaves "campaigns and committees some time to get their digital strategies back on track."

Google said it regularly pauses advertising "for a discrete period over unpredictable, 'sensitive' events," but "we no longer consider this post-election period to be a sensitive event,'" CNBC reported. The news comes after YouTube, which is owned by Google, announced it would ban new videos falsely claiming widespread fraud changed the outcome of the 2020 election, saying this is "in line with our approach towards historical U.S. president elections," as opposed to "a current election."