“Meta’s lax policy on political ads—a policy which has sadly been in effect for many months—allows for weaponization and heightened disinformation on Meta’s products,” Nora Benavidez, senior counsel at the media watchdog organization Free Press, told Mother Jones. “Now is an urgent moment for Meta and other platforms to do more, not less, for better and safer user experiences, namely by investing in greater trust and safety and content moderation staff to robustly enforce lies on their platforms.”

In June, YouTube made a similar decision to lift its ban on election lies.