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San Francisco MTA bans political ads

Agency officials said input was sought and received from community groups while drafting the policy, which was adopted by a unanimous vote and without discussion and goes into effect immediately.

April 10, 2017
San Francisco MTA bans political ads

SFMTA

1 min to read


SFMTA

SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s board of directors voted to ban political ads on its buses, trains, and transit shelters, KQED reports.

The SFMTA faced controversy in 2012 for ads that appeared on buses and transit shelters that said: “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel, defeat Jihad.” At the time, transit officials said they could not remove the ads because that could be viewed as a violation of the First Amendment.

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SFMTA officials said input was sought and received from community groups while drafting the policy, which was adopted by a unanimous vote and without discussion and goes into effect immediately. A spokesman for SFMTA said the new policy was adopted to prevent the appearance of ads that “have the potential to be harmful or disruptive to the transit system,” according to the report. For the full story, click here.


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