Facebook said on Tuesday, it will block ads relating to Ireland's forthcoming referendum on abortion that do not originate from advertisers inside the country.
There had been worries in Ireland that foreign ads could influence the result of the vote come May 25.
The move reflects the countries latest commitment to boost the transparency of its political advertising.
The social media group, under scrutiny for its role in Britain’s Brexit referendum and the 2016 U.S. presidential election, made the move following criticism that foreign advertising could be a decisive in the campaign to overhaul one of the world’s strictest abortion regimes.
“As part of our efforts to help protect the integrity of elections and referendums from undue influence, we will begin rejecting ads related to the referendum if they are being run by advertisers based outside of Ireland,” said the company in a statement on its website.
The company said it would rely on reports from established campaign groups on both sides of the campaign to identify foreign-based ads, as its automated election integrity tools are still in development.
However, Ads uploaded to Facebook by organisations based in the country could still be funded by foreign sources.
