Today’s policies build on the company’s decision to ban political advertising from its platform in 2018. As before, you won’t see political ads on Pinterest, nor will the company show any ads when you search for general election terms like “polling place.” The same goes for when and if you decide to search for pins related to Donald Trump and Joe Biden. “We believe that’s a better and more inspiring experience for everyone,” Pinterest said.
Users aren’t the only ones who will benefit from Pinterest’s new policies. The company will give its more than 2,200 employees eight hours of paid time off to use toward civic engagement. They can take advantage of that time to do things like vote and work at a polling station. The move follows similar initiatives from other tech companies like Apple and Twitter.
“We believe participating in the democratic process can be inspiring, and we want Pinterest to be a place where people can find credible information that inspires them to participate fully in their communities,” the company said.
More so than some other online platforms, Pinterest has historically done a good job of combating misinformation on its platform. When the coronavirus pandemic first hit, the company was quick to put credible information, from sources like the World Health Organization, in front of users.