Facebook will now let users in the U.S. turn off political ads – here’s how to do it

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Facebook is taking another step back from being the arbiter of truth by letting you turn off and mute political ads on the site that you don’t agree with. The social site says that “political ads play an important role in every election,” which really just means “we like the cash they pay us to run them – deal with it.”

At least you can remove the ads you don’t want, right? You can do this on an organizational basis when you see one of the ads show up, or you can turn them off entirely in your Ad Preferences. I have to wonder if Facebook gets paid whether or not you have the ads turned on. My bet is yes, but if you want a way that might actually hurt them in the bank balance, go and turn political ads off.

Here’s how to turn off political ads in Facebook

From an Ad in your feed:

1. Tap on the Confirmed Organization bubble over the political ad
   

   Image: KnowTechie

2. That’ll pop up an informational panel with some links explaining the ad. Tap on See fewer ads about this topic
   

   Image: KnowTechie

3. Then tap on See fewer ads about this topic again, on the confirmation screen
4. That’s it; now you’ll see less of those political ads in your feed

From Ad Preferences:

1. Navigate to Ad Preferences by going to Settings & Privacy > Settings > Ads
2. Scroll down to Ad Topics and tap on it
   

   Image: KnowTechie

3. Then tap on Social Issues, Elections or Politics
   

   Image: KnowTechie

4. You’ll get a pop-up saying See fewer ads about this topic. Tap on that and you’re set

That’s it. Now your Facebook feed will be less cluttered with political ads. However, we can’t do anything about your cousin that keeps posting barely legible political conspiracy theories though. Maybe unfollow them so they don’t show up in your feed as much.

This new ad removal feature is rolling out starting today for some people and rolling out to everyone in the U.S. over the next few weeks.

This is probably a no-brainer, but do you plan on turning these off or not? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.