From May this year, Google will ban the promotion of political advertisements on all of its platforms. The measure meets the demands of the Superior Electoral Court (TSE), which wants to restrict the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in electoral advertisements and combat the circulation of fake news.
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For experts, candidates will lose important tools to publicize their campaigns, having to search for the service on social networks such as Facebook, Instagram and Twitter/X.
Google’s new policy prohibits the circulation of any type of advertisement that talks about elections, political parties, federations and coalitions, elected positions, government proposals, bills, exercise of the right to vote and other political rights or matters related to electoral process. The measure applies to all platforms of the big techlike YouTube, for example.
Google followed TSE Resolution 23,732which determined that paid advertising providers on the internet must “maintain a repository of these advertisements to monitor, in real time, the content, values, those responsible for payment and the characteristics of the population groups that make up the audience”.
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According to the Estadão, the platform discussed, over the last two months, ways to comply with TSE rules. And he came to the conclusion that this is not possible. In a note, Google reported that the ban on political advertisements was determined to “no longer allow political advertisements to be broadcast in the country”. “We are globally committed to supporting election integrity and will continue to engage with authorities regarding this matter,” the company said.
According to Marcelo Crespo, Law coordinator at the Escola Superior de Propaganda e Marketing (ESPM), the change should be a “test” for the control of advertising in the 2026 elections. The expert sees the possible reduction of content as a positive point. untrue facts that may be driven by big tech. However, a negative factor he points out is the impossibility of using Google by campaigns that want to reach potential voters.
“It is a platform that has great power over society, and needs to have a sense of responsibility so that democracy is respected. Perhaps the impact will be positive from the perspective that we have less fake news. The negative impact may be that, if a candidate wants to publish his content there, he won’t be able to”, said Crespo.
Google’s decision does not prevent political ads from being promoted via social media. For Marcelo Crespo, it will be necessary to analyze whether candidates will seek to boost their campaigns on platforms such as Facebook, Twitter/X and Instagram. “Although Google is very relevant, technology is not just Google. We have the social media platforms and the messaging apps. These are other areas of activity for the candidates, and it will be necessary to monitor them to analyze the impacts”, said the director of ESPM.
Maria Carolina Lopes, specialist in Democracy and Digital Communication, considers that the ban on the part of big tech should give Meta — a media conglomerate that brings together Facebook and Instagram — a monopoly on political ads in this year’s elections.
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“Meta will no longer need to share this share with Google. Thinking as a company, it’s a win. On the other hand, if the moral and political cost becomes too high, it can go in the same direction. This way, we would eliminate the game of campaigns promoted on the internet”, stated the expert.
According to Maria Carolina, Google makes it possible to create higher quality ads compared to Meta. The expert explains that the campaigns had the opportunity to boost searches for websites with proposals and keywords and to boost videos on YouTube. “Democracy loses without these possibilities and with market concentration”, she analyzed.
Essay West, with information from State Agency
