Facebook bans sanitizer, virus test ads to prevent price gouging

Facebook will ban ads for certain high-demand products during the coronavirus pandemic as a measure to protect against price inflation, 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,” he added.