Facebook finally yanks Trump ad after his campaign gets caught blatantly violating rules

Thanks to some nudging by the newsletter Popular Info, Facebook has taken down yet another Trump campaign ad for violating the social network's advertising policies.

A screenshot of the ad shows a crowd of women with the caption, "The Women for Trump Coalition needs the support of strong women like you!" The ad violates a Facebook policy that states ads "must not contain content that asserts or implies personal attributes."

"This includes direct or indirect assertions or implications about a person’s race, ethnic origin, religion, beliefs, age, sexual orientation or practices, gender identity, disability, medical condition (including physical or mental health), financial status, membership in a trade union, criminal record, or name," the policy states.

Speaking to Gizmodo, Facebook confirmed that they notified the Trump campaign about the violation and warned that the ad "cannot continue to run unless fixed."

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Facebook blamed the ad's slipping through the cracks on the fact that "machines and human reviewers make mistakes," adding that "the ad review system and enforcement aren’t perfect and we won’t catch every ad." But according to Popular Info's Judd Legum, the Trump campaign has a whole litany of ads that are in violation of Facebook's policies.

One ad falsely claimed that Democrats want to "repeal the Second Amendment," which violates Facebook's policy prohibiting "deceptive claims, offers, or methods." In another ad, Facebook allowed the Trump campaign to mislead supporters by claiming there was a midnight deadline to enter a contest to win the "1,000,000th red MAGA hat signed by President Trump." According to Legum, the ad was allowed to run for weeks.

The problem isn't going away any time soon, and Legum says that the situation is "likely to get worse."

"The Trump campaign is learning that it can get away with nearly anything on Facebook. As election day approaches, its tactics are likely to become more brazen."

Earlier this month, The New York Times pointed out how the Trump campaign is using Facebook to disseminate some of Trump's most inflammatory claims.

Since January, Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign has posted more than 2,000 ads on Facebook that include the word “invasion” — part of a barrage of advertising focused on immigration, a dominant theme of his re-election messaging. A review of Mr. Trump’s tweets also found repeated references to an “invasion,” while his 2016 campaign advertising heavily featured dark warnings about immigrants breaching America’s borders.

Legum writes that Facebook's poor track record is setting the stage for a repeat of the problems we saw in 2016.

"An informed public is the cornerstone of a functioning Democracy. Facebook's neglect is putting us at risk of a 2016 repeat."

Featured image via Gage Skidmore/Flickr