Facebook decided to take down Trump campaign ads encouraging people to take part in the "Official 2020 Congressional District Census" after they were harshly criticised by some activists as "fake" and "deceptive".
"There are policies in place to prevent confusion around the official US census. This is an example of those being enforced", Facebook explained.
The removed ads actually led those who clicked on them to an online survey page which asked respondents about their age, political preferences and attitude as well as their opinions about some controversial political issues such as the Obamacare programme or Democrat efforts to impeach Donald Trump. The website also urged visitors to donate to Trump's fundraisers after they finished the survey.
The activists', and apparently Facebook's, issue with the ad was that it was named similarly to the 2020 US census, which will start on 12 March. Unlike the Trump campaign's survey, this is an official procedure done every 10 years to register population flows between states thus rebalancing their representation in the House of Representatives.
The US census also determines how much government funding the respective states will receive based on their populations.