Mask Up! How Public Health Messages Collide With Facebook's Political Ads Ban
Nearly two months after Election Day, Facebook still prohibits political ads. The ban is frustrating some elected leaders who say it makes it harder to get out information about the pandemic.
Los Angeles County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl's district sweeps from the beaches of Santa Monica to the San Fernando Valley. Among the two million people she represents are Latino communities hit especially hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
"Many essential workers, many market and pharmacy and food service and restaurant and hotel workers and a lot of health care workers," she said. "So a lot of people just had to go to work."
To reach them amid a pandemic that has made face-to-face communication difficult Kuehl turned to Facebook. When the virus surged in her district this summer, she put out ads in English and Spanish, urging people to mask up.
