Advertisers must declare a Special Ad Category when an ad is about one of these topics. For financial products and services (which expanded the former credit category), employment, and housing ads, Meta limits targeting to reduce discrimination: age, gender, and ZIP-code targeting are restricted, many detailed-targeting options are unavailable, location targeting requires a minimum radius, and some automation features aren't available.
Ads about social issues, elections, or politics carry further requirements: the advertiser must complete Meta's authorization process, ads must include a 'Paid for by' disclaimer, and they're archived publicly in the Meta Ad Library for seven years. Meta also requires disclosure when these ads contain realistic imagery, video, or audio that was digitally created or altered.
Example
A candidate's campaign completes Meta's ad authorization, adds a 'Paid for by' disclaimer, and declares the social issues, elections or politics category before launching.
How Sloss Digital uses it
Our political, housing, and financial clients' campaigns are built compliant from the start — authorization, disclaimers, and category-appropriate targeting — so ads aren't rejected in a critical window.