Google won’t run political ads during Canada’s election cycle

Image: GP Images/Getty Images for Warner Bros. Pictures Canada

We’re jealous of Canada again, and not just for their healthcare.

Google won’t run political ads during Canada’s 2019 election, according to The Globe and Mail. Google made its decision in response to a new set of election advertising transparency rules, which Google said would be too difficult to comply with.

“We’ve come to the decision that the best way for Google to comply with the Elections Act in the 2019 election cycle is actually to stop accepting elections ads as defined in the legislation,” Colin McKay, Google Canada’s head of public policy and government relations, told the Globe and Mail. “It is painful for us.”

The decision highlights the different ways that tech giants are addressing election and content integrity issues. Banning, down-ranking, flagging, keeping track of, or removing content from search results are all tools in these companies’ arsenals to make sure the information reaching their customers is accurate and transparent — and each tech company has its own approach. In fact, Google has been working on its own election “integrity and transparency” measures — but the Canadian requirements were apparently just… too transparent? 

Canada will hold its federal elections in October 2019. A new law passed in December, Bill C-76, includes the provision that companies that distribute political advertisements must keep a written registry of all political ads that it shows to its customers.

That might sound simple enough. But because Google’s advertising platform runs on a lightning fast, automated auction system, Google says that it does not necessarily know which ads it is showing. Which, hey, maybe that’s part of the problem! 

In any case, Google said it would be “extremely difficult” to comply with the regulations. So it is opting out of the political ads game in Canada in advance of the 2019 election.

Canadian officials are actually not pleased with Google’s decision. Democratic Institutions Minister Karina Gould told the Globe and Mail that the move was “very disappointing.”

“We know that Google is enormously capable both technically and financially,” Gould said. “It should apply these resources to producing a registry in Canada that complies with Canada’s laws.”

Google’s move in Canada is markedly different from Facebook’s election integrity efforts. Facebook already keeps a registry of advertisements on the platform that is searchable by issue or name, although it does not provide one all-encompassing list. 

Mark Zuckerberg recently wrote that Facebook did consider removing political ads altogether. But Facebook ultimately decided that “giving people a voice” was important enough to warrant keeping election ads on the platform. He noted that doing away with political ads would have actually been more cost effective, since all the tools Facebook is building out to promote election integrity are costly. Perhaps Google’s calculations between building the list vs. reaping political ad dollars came to a different conclusion than Facebook — Minster Gould seems to think so.

“Google’s decision to opt out of political advertising during the regulated period appears to have been made for business reasons and does not reflect on the quality of our laws, which are designed to protect Canadian voters and our elections,” Gould told the Globe and Mail.

In the United States, House Democrats have introduced a package of legislation intended to strengthen voting, campaign finance, and elections ethics. Included in the bill is a national registry of political advertising, that would keep track of advertising requests for more than $500. The bill will likely face strong opposition as it advances, especially in the Republican-controlled Senate. But if an advertising database were to come to fruition, Google’s move in Canada shows that the tech giant might not be so keen to comply with any similar future U.S. provision.

Then again, Google getting out of political ads might not be so bad.