Online platforms including Facebook and Alphabet Inc’s Google face growing pressure to stop carrying political ads that contain false or misleading claims ahead of the US presidential election.The company, which recently joined Facebook, Twitter and Google in launching a public database of its political ads, defines political ads as including election-related, advocacy and issue ads.This includes advertising for political candidates, political action committees (PACs), legislation, or political issues with the intent to influence an election, according to the sites ads policy.The policy has been attacked by regulators and lawmakers who say it could spread misinformation and cause voter suppression.PINTEREST Photo-sharing site Pinterest Inc also banned political campaign ads last year. Critics including Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren have also run intentionally false Facebook ads to highlight the issue."

“The nature of paid political ads is not something we believe fits the TikTok platform experience,” wrote Blake Chandlee, TikTok’s vice president of global business solutions.Some lawmakers praised the ban but critics said Twitter’s decision would benefit incumbent and hurt less well-known candidates.The following is how social media platforms have decided to handle false or misleading claims in political ads:FACEBOOK Facebook exempts politicians from its third-party fact-checking program, allowing them to run ads with false claims."LINKEDIN LinkedIn, which is owned by Microsoft Corp, banned political ads last year.Twitch, which is owned by Amazon."Search engine Bing, which is also owned by Microsoft, does not allow ads with political or election-related content.TIKTOK The Chinese-owned video app popular with US teenagers does not permit political advertising on the platform.

The app, which is owned by Beijing-based tech giant ByteDance, has recently come under scrutiny from US lawmakers over concerns the company may be censoring politically sensitive content, and raising questions about how it stores personal data.In the United States, the Communications Act prevents broadcast stations from rejecting or censoring ads from candidates for federal office once they have accepted advertising for that political race, although this does not apply to cable networks like CNN, or to social media sites, where leading presidential candidates are spending millions to target voters in the run-up to the November 2020 election.However, Google does not have a wholesale ban on politicians running false or misleading ads.TWITCH A spokeswoman for Twitch told Reuters the live-streaming gaming network does not allow political advertising. In recent months, political candidates such as US President Donald Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders have joined the platform ahead of the 2020 election.

Facebook and Google are the giants in political ads,” said Steve Passwaiter, vice president of the Campaign Media Analysis Group at Kantar Media.REDDIT Social network Reddit allows ads related to political issues and it allows ads from political candidates at the federal level, but not for state or local elections.In October, when former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign asked the company to take down a Trump campaign ad that it said contained false claims, a Google spokeswoman told Reuters it did not violate the site’s policies.Facebook does fact-check content from political groups.GOOGLE Google and its video-streaming service YouTube prohibit certain kinds of misrepresentation in ads, such as misinformation about public voting procedures or incorrect claims that a public figure has died.“We want to create a positive, welcoming environment for our Pinners and political campaign ads are divisive by nature,” said Pinterest spokeswoman Jamie Favazza, who told Reuters the decision was also part of the company’s strategy to address misinformation.TWITTER Twitter Inc has banned political ads.“Twitter from an advertising perspective is not a player at all.Snap does not ban "attack" ads in general, but its policy does prohibit attacks relating to a candidates personal life.

The site does not strictly ban all issue-based advertising but the company considers whether an ad could be seen as “political” when it is reviewed, the spokeswoman said.It also does not allow ads about political issues, elections or candidates outside of the United States.In an October blog post cable and wire Manufacturers TikTok said that the company wants to make sure the platform continues to feel "light-hearted and irreverent.Facebook’s chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has defended the company’s stance, arguing that it does not want to stifle political speech, but he also said the company was considering ways to refine the policy.

The company also said it will not allow ads that advocate for a specific outcome on political or social causes.Officials from the Trump campaign, which is out-spending its Democratic rivals on Facebook and Google ads, called the ban “dumb” but also said it would have little effect on the president’s strategy..“We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” said Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey in a statement last month.com Inc, is primarily a video gaming platform but also has channels focused on sports, music and politics.The overall political ad spend for the 2018 US midterm elections on Twitter was less than USD3 million, Twitter’s Chief Financial Officer Ned Segal said