Facebook claims that its ban on new political advertising the last week before the election equally affects everyone and is simply an attempt to stop “misinformation” at the last minute. However, that it is simply not true. Make no mistake about it, Facebook’s recent announcement has little or nothing to do with stopping “misleading” last-minute ads, and everything to do with trying to stop President Trump and Republicans from winning at the polls this fall.
They know two things are true: 1.) Facebook advertising is much more important for President Trump’s campaign than for the Biden campaign, and 2.) Communicating with voters via Facebook advertising during the last week before the election is much more critical for the Trump campaign and Republicans than it is for Biden and the Democrats.
When you look back at the 2016 campaign, the outsized role Facebook played in President Trump’s victory is apparent and is noted by nearly every postmortem election report written.
In 2016, the Trump campaign spent more money on Facebook than any other platform, while spending less than half of what Hillary Clinton spent on TV in the last month of the election. On average the Trump campaign at any time was running 40,000 to 50,000 versions of their ads on Facebook, tailoring their messages to specific audiences they needed to reach and testing the effectiveness of different methods and messages.
Looking at how much each campaign is spending on Facebook this cycle makes it even more obvious how important Facebook advertising is for the Trump Campaign and how much more crucial it is for President Trump than Joe Biden.
Over the last 90 days, the Donald J. Trump for President Committee and the Trump Make America Great Again Committee has spent over $61 Million on 185,000 different Facebook ads. During that same period, Biden for President and the Biden Victory Fund has spent $33 million on just less than 28,000 different Facebook ads.
Facebook is keenly aware of these numbers, understands the importance the Trump campaign places on Facebook advertising, and knows how crucial it is for the Trump campaign to be able to frequently change and update their ads and messaging (something they now won’t be able to do during the last week of the campaign).
A recent survey by the Pew Research Center shows that 60% of Trump supporters say they plan to wait until Election Day to vote, while 58% of Biden voters say they will vote by mail and only 23% of Biden voters plan to vote on Election Day. With most of his supporters and potential supporters planning to vote on November 3rd, it is crucial that President Trump be able to run advertisements on Facebook encouraging and reminding his supporters to vote.
It’s also crucial for Republican candidates up and down the ballot, along with state and county Republican Party groups across our nation, to be able to reach potential voters online during the last days and hours before they go to the polls. With most of Biden’s potential supporters voting well before the last week, the Biden campaign and Democrats will still have that opportunity. President Trump and Republicans will not.
Add the spending disparity between the Trump and Biden campaigns to the fact that a vast majority of Trump supporters plan to wait until Election Day to vote while Biden’s voters largely plan to vote by mail, and it becomes easy to see why Facebook wants to stop new political advertising during the last week of the election.
Facebook’s latest pronouncement is simply the latest and greatest attempt by Mark Zuckerberg, the Liberal Left, and Big Tech to try to tip the scales in favor of the Democrats, to silence conservative voices online, and try to stop President Trump and Republican candidates up and down the ballot from winning this fall.
It’s a thinly veiled attempt to shutdown Republicans’ GOTV advertising and to suppress Republican turnout on Election Day. They are simply answering Joe Biden’s call earlier this summer for Facebook to crack down on President Trump and his allies’ ability to effectively reach voters via Facebook. We must not let them succeed.
Andy Yates is the founder of RepublicanAds.com
Using these vague “policy violations,” Google is now threatening to demonetize us. It’s part of Big Tech’s effort to silence conservative voices.
Twitter is also doing the same shenanigans. All of the platforms will be working overtime to get the shell, Biden, elected. Google made it clear after Hillary lost, with their crying, pity party, they would not allow it to happen again.