Facebook today said that “technical flaws” caused thousands of approved political ads to be blocked from the platform this week.

The social media giant was roundly criticized by the Biden campaign, which said thousands of its own ads had been taken down to the cost of a half-million dollars. Facebook had previously said there would be a blackout of political ads starting Oct. 27, although the blocked ads had already been approved. The Trump campaign also said some of its pre-approved ads had been blocked.

“Even though the majority of political and issue ads have been unaffected since the restriction took effect, we have identified a number of unanticipated issues affecting campaigns of both political parties,” Facebook said in a blog post today. “Some were technical problems. Others were because advertisers did not understand the instructions we provided about when and how to make changes to ad targeting.”

Facebook said its system failed to detect approved ads in the Ad Library, adding that the glitch only affected a relatively small number of ads related to politics and social issues. The company added that some of the ads were blocked because the advertisers had made changes in targeting just before the deadline. Nonetheless, Facebook admitted that it should have been clearer about editing ads during the restricted period.

Something Facebook wanted to make clear was that no ads were blocked by a person and the mishap had nothing to with loyalty to a particular political party. “The technical problems were automated and impacted ads from across the political spectrum and both Presidential campaigns,” said the company. The issues have now been fixed.

That may not appease the people whose ads fell victim to the glitch. Speaking to Politico, the largest Democratic Party super PAC, Priorities USA Action, said ads that cost many thousands of dollars were down for two days. “While we are one of the largest spenders on digital ads in either party, it should not take a public campaign and endless calls to get Facebook to act,” Priorities USA Action said in a statement.

Photo: Emily Davies/Flickr