Google Limits Political Ad Targeting

(RTTNews) - Google on Wednesday announced new restrictions on political advertisers around the world. The company has joined Twitter in revising its political ad rules ahead of the election season.

Google will begin enforcing the ban within a week in the U.K., ahead of the December 12 general election. The ban will take effect in the European Union by the end of the year and in the rest of the world starting on January 6, 2020, the company said in a blog post.

Google said political advertisers will only be able to target U.S. political ads based on general categories such as gender, age and postal code. Previously, the company offered basic political targeting capabilities to the verified advertisers, such as serving ads based on public voter records and general political affiliations.

However, the company said that the political advertisers can continue to do contextual targeting, such as serving ads to people reading or watching a story about, say, the economy.