Ahead of the 2020 United States Presidential elections, Facebook is gearing up to ban advertisements on its platform that urge people not to vote, according to its annual civil rights audit released on Sunday.

The move comes in a bid to maintain elections’ integrity.

Following the 2016 U.S. Presidential election, Facebook faced flak for failure to stop those who used the platform to spread misinformation. Some even published ads telling people not to vote in 2016.

"To protect elections, we have a team across product, engineering, data science, policy, legal and operations dedicated full time to these efforts," Facebook's Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said in a blog post announcing the report.

"They're already working to ban ads that discourage people from voting, and we expect to finalize a new policy and its enforcement before the 2019 gubernatorial elections," she added.

The new initiative builds on the work Facebook has done over the past year to prevent voter suppression.

"This is a direct response to the types of ads we saw on Facebook in 2016," Sandberg said.

"Just as civil rights groups helped us better prepare for the 2018 elections, their guidance has been key as we prepare for the 2020 Census and upcoming elections around the world," she added.

By Sowmya Sangam