Adobe to Ban Political Ads Ahead of Presidential Election

(Bloomberg) -- Adobe Inc. will ban political advertising on its software that helps manage and place online ads, ahead of a U.S. presidential election expected to be rife with disinformation.

“Our Ads Requirement Policy will be modified to prohibit the running of political advertising creative assets through Adobe Advertising Cloud effective August 30, 2020,” the San Jose, California-based company said in a statement Friday. The change was earlier reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Adobe, best known as the maker of Photoshop, has reoriented its marketing and advertising software strategy to prioritize “the largest brand and agency customers” and those that use the full range of products. The company is a major player in the market for managing corporate ad strategies but has decided to exit the business of helping clients with online ad transactions, which wasn’t very profitable.

Adobe has been involved with efforts to combat deepfakes and other disinformation tactics and joins Twitter Inc. and Spotify Technology SA in its ban on political content in ads.

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