Google will block all ads related to the referendum from Thursday

Google is following in Facebook's footsteps.

Google has announced that it will pause all advertisements related to the Eighth Amendment referendum. From 10 May until the referendum concludes, the company will block all related ads from running across Google and YouTube, as part of its effort to preserve the integrity of elections internationally. "Following our update around election integrity efforts globally, we have decided to pause all ads related to the Irish referendum on the Eighth Amendment," a Google spokesperson confirmed.​ The news follows Facebook's announcement on 8 May that it will no longer accept any advertisements related to the referendum from advertisers based outside of Ireland. In their own statement, a Facebook's press spokesperson said: "Today, as part of our efforts to help protect the integrity of elections and referendums from undue influence, we will begin rejecting ads related to the referendum if they are being run by advertisers based outside of Ireland." In order to ensure greater transparency around political advertising, Facebook developed a series of "election integrity tools," which seek to inform users who the payee is and where they are from. Said tools would also require the advertisers to verify their location. Similarly, on 4 May, Google rolled out its own political ad verification process in the US with the intentions of expanding this globally.