Several of Sen. Elizabeth Warren's (D., Mass.) campaign ads were removed by Facebook for calling for the breakup of Facebook and other tech giants, which goes against Facebook's advertising policies.
Facebook reinstated the ads on Monday, following reports on the removal, saying it wanted to allow for "robust debate."
Warren on Friday published a piece arguing Amazon, Google, and Facebook need to "break up" monopolies in order to promote competitive markets. She went on to say the big tech companies have " too much power over our economy, our society, and our democracy" and have "bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field against everyone else."
As part of her policy rollout, Warren's campaign placed multiple ads with identical images and text on Facebook, according to Politico. Warren has decried Facebook's high-profile acquisitions of properties such as WhatsApp and Instagram.
"Three companies have vast power over our economy and our democracy. Facebook, Amazon, and Google," read the ads, which were placed by the campaign on Friday. "We all use them. But in their rise to power, they’ve bulldozed competition, used our private information for profit, and tilted the playing field in their favor."
Facebook removed those ads, citing their violation of the company's policy of not allowing ads which use the Facebook brand.
"This ad was taken down because it goes against Facebook's advertising policies," read a message on three ads.
A spokesperson for Facebook said that after an initial review, the ads could have been taken down because of the social media giant's policy about using Facebook's brand in posts, but later added they were reviewing the ads being taken down before eventually reinstating them, Politico reported:
The Massachusetts Democrat has staked out an aggressive stance toward Silicon Valley's biggest companies, going further than many of the other Democratic 2020 candidates.
The affected ads, which included a video, directed users to a petition on Warren’s campaign website urging them "to support our plan to break up these big tech companies."
The ads were limited in size and reach, with each costing under $100, according to disclosure details listed online.
UPDATE: 10:26 P.M.: This article was updated to show the ads were re-posted by Facebook.