Alphabet Inc’s Google has said that it will ban political advertising on its platform in the run-up to the 2022 Philippine elections.
The elections will be held in May next year to choose a successor to President Rodrigo Duterte.
The company said that election advertisements that promote or oppose any political party or the candidacy of any person or party for public office would not be allowed to run between February 8 to May 9, 2022.
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The dates cover the period of campaigning in the Philippines up to election day on May 9.
This came as an update to Google’s political content policy and comes as social media platforms have become political battlegrounds in the Southeast Asian nation.
Previous studies have shown that Filipinos top the rankings globally for time spent on social media.
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Also, Google will send notifications to affected advertisers about the policy update.
Earlier Google banned political advertising in Canada’s federal election in 2019 and before an election in Singapore in 2020.
Social media platforms like Facebook are believed to have helped strengthen Duterte’s support base to enable his election victory in 2016. (AW)
