Troubleshooting disclaimers for ads about social issues, elections or politics in the United States

We have compiled answers to the most common questions. surrounding disclaimers.Use this blog to troubleshoot any issues you may run into when setting up your disclaimers, and/or managing ads about social issues, elections or politics.

1. Your Page needs a “Paid for by” disclaimer to run ads about social issues, elections or politics. Please note: This policy applies to a broader range of influential content than traditional campaign ads, and is based on the content of the ad, regardless of the type of advertiser.

• For examples of the types of ads that fall into the ads about social issues, elections or politics special category, please review this Help Center article.
• You can get started with the disclaimer creation process in your Page’s settings.

2. The person creating the disclaimer and/or launching and managing the ads needs to be authorized to run ads about social issues, elections or politics via their personal Facebook profile account.

• Visit www.facebook.com/id to get started with your authorization, which includes confirming your location and identity.

3. There are multiple paths to create a disclaimer for your organization. These paths are not intended to categorize the type of organization you have, but are simply different options to complete the process based on the documentation you may have available. Should you choose to go with Option 1: the EIN route (also known as the “tax flow” route), you’ll need to submit IRS documents as proof of eligibility for your organization’s disclaimer. These documents need to be from the IRS (such as but not limited to, form CP 575), not ones you may have submitted to the IRS (example: W9).

• You can see all the disclaimer creation options here.
• You can see the full list of accepted documents here.

4. The website associated with your disclaimer needs to be live and representative of the organization listed on your disclaimer. The exact organization name listed on your “Paid for by” disclaimer must appear on the homepage of the website provided, or the disclaimer will be rejected. If the website becomes inactive, your disclaimer will become inactive and your ads will stop running.

5. Don’t forget to link your disclaimer to the ad account you plan to run ads from. This will give you the option to label your ads about social issues, elections, or politics with the linked disclaimer. If you do not do this, your ads will be rejected.

6. Just because a disclaimer is linked to the ad account does not mean it’s an approved disclaimer: always check that the disclaimer that is showing as linked at the ad level of Ads Manager, is still valid. You can do this by visiting your Page’s settings to review active disclaimer(s).

7. When creating your ads, don’t forget to select Social Issues, Elections or Politics in the Special Ad Category at the campaign level. This effectively attaches your approved and linked disclaimer to the ads.

8. You cannot edit disclaimers. If you need to make an update, please create a new disclaimer and unlink the old disclaimer from your ad account before linking your new disclaimer. You may also need to republish your ads to ensure the new disclaimer renders correctly.

9. We are unable to expedite the disclaimer review process or your authorization to run ads about social issues, elections or politics, regardless of circumstances.

10. Using a disclaimer on your ads does not result in the algorithm showing your ads less.

11. Joint disclaimers are allowed (example: Paid for by Samantha Weber and Sofia Torres).

• Follow the instructions for Option 4 on this page.
• The landing page behind the URL you submit in the disclaimer submission process will need to reflect that the ads are paid for by two entities.

12. If your organization wants to run ads in a country it isn’t based in but requires a disclaimer to run ads about social issues, elections or politics, you’ll need to have a Page admin in the target country get authorized to run ads about social issues, elections or politics.

• Once they’re authorized, they will be able to create a disclaimer for your Page to run ads about social issues, elections or politics, in that country.
• They will also need to be the ones to launch the ads about social issues, elections or politics in the target country using the disclaimer they created.
  • Once launched, your campaign cannot be edited by anyone not authorized to run ads about social issues, elections or politics, in the target country, otherwise the ads will get permanently disapproved and the person who set them up will need to re-launch them from scratch (no duplicating or importing the previously approved, but now disapproved ads).

Any disclaimers you create must accurately reflect the organization or person paying for your ads. In addition, disclaimers don't take the place of any legally required disclaimers and disclosures. Advertisers have an independent obligation to make sure their ads comply with all applicable laws. If you need additional assistance with your disclaimers, please contact our support team.