In what could dangerously alter the 2020 election, Facebook has recently decided to exempt political ads from its general prohibition on false content.

Soon after this policy change, Donald Trump's re-election campaign made a $1.5 million ad buy on Facebook that repeated blatant lies & conspiracy theories about Joe Biden & Ukraine.

Rule #13 of Facebook's ad policy prohibits ads that include "claims debunked by third-party fact checkers." Ads that are found to violate that rule are taken down accordingly.

In fact, the third-party fact-checkers that Facebook uses for ads alleged to be false (Factcheck.org and Politifact) have already debunked the claims made in Trump's ads.

But Facebook last week decided to exempt from Rule #13 any ads coming from a "website or Page with the primary purpose of expressing the opinion or agenda of a political figure."

This effectively gives Donald Trump (or any other political candidate) open season to broadcast every lie and falsehood, while Facebook receives all the ad revenue.

In contrast, CNN has refused to air an ad from Trump's re-election campaign that repeated the same lies mentioned in the Facebook ad—because the ad was untrue.

Sign the petition to Facebook: Remove political ads proven to be false.