Facebook will continue to fact-check adverts posted by a California gubernatorial candidate despite a policy exempting political candidates from its rules on misinformation in advertising.

The company said that because Adriel Hampton, the head of the Really Online Lefty League political action committee (Pac), “has made clear he registered as a candidate to get around our policies … his content, including ads, will continue to be eligible for third-party fact-checking.”

Facebook has previously removed deliberately false adverts run by Hampton’s Pac that claimed the Republican senator Lindsey Graham supported a green new deal.

Facebook’s policies exempt candidates and parties from fact-checking but not other political actors such as Pacs. On Monday, Hampton tweeted a request for political candidates who would be interested in testing the rules. “Don’t make me run for governor or something,” he said. “My wife will not be thrilled.”

Two hours later, he announced he would be running as an independent candidate in the 2022 California gubernatorial race on a platform of social media regulation.

Hampton has been clear about his intention to run adverts, tweeting a call for volunteers to “ignore Facebook’s fact-checking rules and just do viral ad-driven dunks all day”.

He has run for office once before, in California’s 10th congressional district, and he said observers should not count him out of the race in three years’ time.

Facebook had previously told reporters, including Buzzfeed’s Ryan Broderick, that the only reason it would block a candidate from running false ads would be if the person had already been banned from the platform when they registered.

Absolutely. I asked FB about this exact thing happening — someone registering as a candidate to run ads — and they said the only thing that would block it is if the person had previously been banned, like Alex Jones running for mayor or something. — Ryan Broderick (@broderick) October 28, 2019

Mark Zuckerberg has defended his company’s decision to exempt politicians from fact-checking, saying it is not the place of technology companies to become arbiters of truth.

“I don’t think most people want to live in a world where you can only post things that tech companies judge to be 100% true,” Zuckerberg said this month.