Google issues harsh new restrictions on political ad targeting

On Wednesday, Google announced that it would start limiting the abilities of political advertisers to target their messaging in the coming months.

In a blog post, Google’s vice president of product management and advertising Scott Spencer, said that the company would begin to ban political advertisers from targeting consumers based on their political affiliation or public voter records. Advertisers will still be able to target voters based on age, gender and zip code, but no more specific location targeting will be permitted. Contextual advertising, like “serving ads to people reading or watching a story about, say, the economy,” Google said, will also be permitted.

These changes will roll out in the United Kingdom ahead of its general...

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