Google to ban all adverts related to Irish abortion referendum

Voters will go to the polls over to decide whether to repeal the eighth amendment to the Irish constitution
PA
Ella Wills9 May 2018

Google will ban all ads related to Ireland's upcoming abortion referendum amid fears of overseas organisations attempting to sway the vote.

It means advertisements linked to the May 25 vote will not appear alongside Google results and on YouTube from Thursday, until after the referendum.

A spokesman for the firm said: "Following our update around election integrity efforts globally, we have decided to pause all ads related to the Irish referendum on the Eighth Amendment."

The policy change comes a day after a similar move by Facebook, which said it would no longer allow ads relating to the vote to be bought by groups outside the Republic of Ireland.

Irish law bans foreign donations to political campaigns, but there were concerns that overseas campaigners were able to spend potentially unlimited amounts buying ads targeting Irish voters.

Google has gone one step further with its policy change by blocking all ads related to the referendum - not just advertisements from groups or individuals possibly seeking to sway the vote.

Ireland's referendum will give voters the first opportunity in 35 years to repeal the eighth amendment to the Irish constitution, which guarantees the “right to life of the unborn” and ensures abortion remains illegal.

It is one of the first big elections held since revelations that political consultancy Cambridge Analytica harvested people's Facebook data to micro-target political ads to select groups during the 2016 US presidential race.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT