Anti-abortion campaigners have sidestepped Google’s ban on online adverts relating to the referendum in Ireland on Friday, so as to promote their message on popular websites. But campaigners have turned to alternative online ad sales platforms to push adverts to Irish readers of news sites. Both sides have spent heavily on online advertising, capitalising on the power of social media advertising to directly target voters without the message being mediated by traditional news outlets. While Google issued a blanket ban on all referendum advertising, Facebook has continued to allow advertising but only if paid for by Irish campaigners, following concerns that foreign anti-abortion groups were targeting voters. The Guardian’s analysis of almost 800 referendum Facebook ads found 55 had since been deleted from the platform.

Source: The Irish Times May 24, 2018 09:56 UTC