The company announced that its content policy will be updated in May
04/25/2024
Google is set to ban political ads in Brazil for the 2024 municipal elections following the Superior Electoral Court (TSE) update to the rules for boosting electoral advertising in February. In a statement, Google announced that it would revise its Google Ads political content policy to “no longer allow political ads to be served in the country.” This information was initially reported by “Poder360” and later confirmed by “O Globo.”
“This update will take place in May, coinciding with the enforcement of the electoral resolutions for 2024. We remain globally committed to supporting the integrity of elections and will continue to engage with authorities on this matter,” the company stated.
Resolution 23732, amending the rules on electoral ads established by the Electoral Court in 2019, includes a definition of “political-electoral content” that Google considers overly broad. According to the Court, this type of ad encompasses topics such as elections, political parties, federations and coalitions, elective positions, individuals holding elective positions, candidates, government proposals, bills, the exercise of voting rights, and other political rights, as well as issues related to the electoral process.
The Electoral Court mandates that digital platforms providing services to boost this type of electoral content must maintain a repository of the ads to monitor, in real time, the content, expenditure, payers, and demographic profiles of the audience targeted by the advertising.
Platforms are also required to offer an “accessible and easy-to-use query tool that allows advanced searches of the repository’s data” using keywords and advertisers’ names, among other criteria.
Furthermore, the Court prohibits the paid prioritization of content that promotes negative information about other candidates or “disseminates false data, fraudulent news, or news that are notoriously untrue or seriously out of context, even if they benefit the user responsible for the boost.”
The TSE’s rules must be implemented within 60 days of their enactment for platforms already offering the ad boosting service, and they are applicable even in non-election years.
Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, which reported a net profit of $73.79 billion in 2023 (a 23% increase from the previous year), argues that moderating such a vast number of ads would be unfeasible, especially in an election involving over 5,000 municipalities. The company also expresses concern that the broad scope of the definition might lead to uncertain moderation practices.
In 2020, a year marked by a brief campaign period and pandemic-related restrictions, “O Globo” reported that candidates had spent R$36 million on boosting internet content for that election. The most significant expenditures were by three companies: Facebook, which also manages Instagram; Adyen, the fintech responsible for the platform’s payment system; and Google.
In 2022, politicians spent nearly R$127 million on advertising on Google, according to the company’s report. From the start of that year to the date of the second round of the presidential election, 53,482 ads were displayed on the big tech platforms. The campaign of former president Jair Bolsonaro spent the most that year, with R$28.7 million, followed by President Lula’s campaign, which spent R$22.8 million on Google and YouTube.
*Por Guilherme Caetano, O Globo — São Paulo
Source: Valor International