Google to ban political advertising in runup to Canadian elections

In the runup to Canada’s federal elections, to be held in October 2019, Alphabet Inc’s Google has announced that it will be banning political advertising on its platform prior to the election. According to a Reuters report, the decision followed the introduction of strict transparency laws by the Canadian government in December.

The Bill C-76 requires online platforms to keep a record of all political and partisan paid advertising published through their platforms.

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Colin McKay, Google Canada’s head of public policy, said in a statement: “For the duration of the 2019 federal election campaign, Google will not accept advertising regulated by Bill C-76. We’re focusing our efforts on supporting Canadian news literacy programs and connecting people to useful and relevant election-related information.”

Advertising represents a significant source of revenue for the information technology giant. According to Mobile Marketer, Google's ad sales rose 20% to US$32.6bn in Q4 2018 from a year earlier, helping to drive parent company Alphabet's revenue by 22% to $39.3bn.