But the change in policy, made for the final week of the US election, was just part of the problem, according to Facebook. 

The company also blamed the campaign for not understanding its instruction surrounding the new policies. 

In a statement, Facebook said “no ad was paused or rejected by a person, or because of any partisan consideration”. 

“Even though the majority of political and issue ads have been unaffected, since the restriction took effect, we have identified a number of unanticipated issues affecting campaigns of both political parties,” the company wrote in its blog. “Some were technical problems. Others were because advertisers did not understand the instructions we provided about when and how to make changes to ad targeting. We have implemented changes to fix these issues, and most political ads are now running without any problems." 

Facebook and other prominent social media platforms have been the subject of intense scrutiny since the last presidential elections, with CEOs like the company’s Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey being summoned to Capitol Hill to discuss how they were combatting everything from foreign interference to misinformation surrounding Democratic elections. 

The “technical glitch” did not just disrupt the campaigns: reports indicated Democratic and GOP fundraising arms were also impacted throughout the week, including Priorities USA Action, one of the largest Democratic super PACs in the country.  

The group said an estimated 600 advertisements were removed for two days this week for key battleground states like Arizona and North Carolina, Politico reported. 

Priorities USA Chairman Guy Cecil said in a statement: “The last two days demonstrate a refusal to act responsibly without public pressure.” 

He added: “While we are one of the largest spenders on digital ads in either party, it should not take a public campaign and endless calls to get Facebook to act. This is much harder for the many smaller organizations that are working to combat misinformation and voter suppression that do not have the connections and resources of a large group like ours.”

Reference: Independent: Chris Riotta: 7 hrs ago