Facebook has removed several misleading ads from the Donald Trump campaign that promoted "the Official 2020 Congressional District Census".
The social networking and technology company Facebook said it removed the misleading Trump ads as it made it appear like respondents were taking part in the official 2020 US census, which will start on March 12.
The said ads were being promoted by a fundraising group backed by Republican officials and Trump's re-election team. These began running on the social media platform on March 3.
They were paid for by the "Trump Make America Great Again Committee", a part of Trump's official re-election fundraising efforts and is backed by the Trump campaign and the Republican national party.
The committee owns and operates the Facebook pages of both Donald Trump and Mike Pence.
According to those who clicked on the ads, they were taken to a page on the Donald Trump website where they were asked to complete a survey. It starts off by asking about age and political leaning, before asking questions about Trump talking points such as "Obamacare", "the Democrats' failed Impeachment Witch Hunt" and "Nancy Pelosi and the Radical Left".
People who fill out the Trump campaign's "census" are finally taken to a web page calling for donations.
A Facebook spokesperson said: "There are policies in place to prevent confusion around the official US census. This is an example of those being enforced."
Vanita Gupta, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, pointed out that the ads were "deceptive" and "unacceptable".
Gupta tweeted: "If Trump says a fake census is 'official', people are going to think its official. Trump's deceptive ads will confuse people about how and when to participate in the 2020 Census, threatening their right to get counted and bring resources and political power to their communities."
