Meta has announced that it’s extending its restriction period on election-related ads beyond the U.S. election, as it gears up for what’s anticipated to be a long running, and divisive vote counting process.

Meta’s regular elections ads blackout period was set to be in place from October 29th till November 5th, but now, Meta is extending that for an undefined period to limit potential concerns.

As per Meta:

“The restriction period for ads about social issues, elections or politics is being extended until later this week. As a reminder, ads that have run prior to 12:01 AM PT on October 29, 2024 and served at least one impression will be allowed to continue while the restriction period is in effect with limited editing capabilities.”

So Meta’s gone with the non-definitive “later this week” as its extension period, as it looks to measure response to the poll, and what that means for civic participation.

Already, various political commentators have raised the possibility of vote tampering, and party operators looking to cheat the democratic system, in various ways. That follows the 2020 election, when accusations of vote rigging carried on right through to inauguration day, and sparked various incidents of violent unrest.

With this in mind, Meta’s keen to ensure that it’s not contributing to such in any way, which is why it’s expanding its election ad restrictions, again, for an indefinite period, this time around.

For regular advertisers, this obviously doesn’t have much impact, outside of clearing the way for more of your ads to be shown in more places in Meta’s apps. But election angst may make those ads less effective either way, so that may not be a major benefit.

For political advertisers, this will mean re-thinking your strategies somewhat, but then again, I suspect that most political ad campaigns are already on hold now till the results become clear.

Meta will provide an update on its political ads blackout later in the week.