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. This May the tech company banned paid messages relating to the referendum from appearing on its services, which dominates many aspects of online advertising. But campaigners have turned to alternative online ad sales platforms to push adverts to Irish readers of news sites. 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 Guardian May 24, 2018 05:00 UTC