Facebook to ban ads for hand sanitizer, disinfecting wipes, COVID-19 test kits

Facebook will ban ads for certain high demand products during the coronavirus pandemic as a measure to protect against price inflations, a company official said Thursday.
The social media platform will ban ads for hand sanitizer, surface disinfecting wipes and COVID-19 test kits in ads and commerce listings, Facebook director of product management Rob Leathern tweeted.
“This is another step to help protect against inflated prices and predatory behavior we’re seeing,” he tweeted.
We’ll be ramping up our automated enforcement for ads and commerce next week. If we see abuse around these products in organic posts, we’ll remove those, too (2/2)
— Rob Leathern (@robleathern) March 19, 2020
“We’ll be ramping up our automated enforcement for ads and commerce next week. If we see abuse around these products in organic posts, we’ll remove those, too,” he added.
The new restrictions followed Facebook’s announcement earlier this month that it would be temporarily banning ads for medical face masks.
The coronavirus pandemic has rapidly been spreading, with more than 240,000 cases globally, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
In the U.S., there are more than 13,000 cases and 175 deaths, according to the same data.
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