Following Facebook’s lead, Google announced that it is banning all advertisements relating to the Ireland’s upcoming abortion referendum.
On Tuesday, Facebook decided to ban foreign ads related to Ireland’s Eighth Amendment vote on May 25. On Wednesday, RTE reported Google took Facebook’s decision one step further and banned all ads in general from running on Google and YouTube related to the Eighth Amendment referendum.
According to RTE, a Google spokesperson said, “Following our update around election integrity efforts globally, we have decided to pause all ads related to the Irish referendum on the Eighth Amendment.”
RTE claims the ban on the ads will stop running “over the next 24 hours.”
An analysis of the decisions by Facebook and Google by The Washington Post claims pro-life groups in the United States, Canada, and Britain are trying to influence the vote. Currently, the Eighth Amendment places the “equal right to life” on both the mother and the unborn child.
It is unclear if Facebook and Google are planning to eventually bring these kinds of guidelines to American audiences when dealing with American elections. Facebook is allegedly considering ads for American elections to only be run by people with verified U.S. addresses.
