- Political advertisers are complaining that some ads were incorrectly blocked as the blackout period went into effect, while others criticized rule-breaking posts that could be misleading.
- In an attempt to clamp down on misinformation, Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) said last month it would impose a moratorium on new political ads in the week before the Nov. 3 election. The changes apparently set off some technological issues for advertisers, as well as glitches in Facebook's system.
- "We're investigating the issues of some ads being paused incorrectly, and some advertisers having trouble making changes to their campaigns," tweeted Rob Leathern, Facebook director of product management. "We're working quickly on these fixes, and will share an update once they are resolved."
- Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden’s digital director Rob Flaherty slammed the social media giant, saying its systems broke “within seconds of launching the silly, performative pre-election hoop-jumping exercise."
- Eric Frenchman, chief marketing officer at Republican digital firm Campaign Solutions, announced that several campaigns he was working with were hit by the pauses.
- "We are in the closing days of the most important election in our nation’s history, so it is disturbing that our clients had their already approved and running Facebook ads shut off without warning overnight," added Mark Jablonowski, managing partner and chief technology officer at DSPolitical, a targeted ad network for Democratic campaigns and progressive causes.