- The Washington Times - Monday, March 11, 2019

Facebook quickly backed off its removal of several ads from Sen. Elizabeth Warren touting her plan to break up the social-media giant.

According to a report in Politico Monday evening, Facebook had taken down several ads from Ms. Warren’s presidential campaign that touted her vow to break up Facebook, along with Google and Amazon.

“This ad was taken down because it goes against Facebook’s advertising policies,” a message attached to all three advertisements in question read.

However almost as soon as Politico broke the story, Facebook reversed course.

“We removed the ads because they violated our policies against use of our corporate logo,” a Facebook spokesperson told Politico. “In the interest of allowing robust debate, we are restoring the ads.”

Ms. Warren responded on Twitter by thanking the company for restoring her ads, but noted that the short-lived fuss vindicates her analysis of why Facebook and similar behemoths need to be broken up.

“Curious why I think FB has too much power? Let’s start with their ability to shut down a debate over whether FB has too much power. Thanks for restoring my posts. But I want a social media marketplace that isn’t dominated by a single censor,” she wrote, adding as a hashtag “#BreakUpBigTech”

Under the law governing television, the major networks could not refuse a campaign’s paid political ad for such content-related reasons.

• Victor Morton can be reached at vmorton@washingtontimes.com.

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