Washington (CNN Business) Facebook (FB) said Thursday it will soon ban misinformation about the 2020 census in a bid to "promote an accurate count of every person in the country" — its latest effort to combat criticism over its handling of political disinformation on the platform.

The ban covers content by politicians as well as advertisers, and prohibits posts that mislead Americans about where, when and how to participate in the census.

Facebook's new policy will likely be put to the test in real time, as the US Census Bureau begins surveying its first households early next year. But how Facebook's enforcement could play out is an open question. Facebook has said it's eliminated billions of fake accounts this year and thousands of pieces of content that violate various company policies, in an indication of its progress. But watchdog reports suggest the company has continued to struggle with misleading political content despite new policies designed to limit its reach.

The decennial Census is a politically crucial count of the US population that underpins congressional redistricting as well as the disbursement of federal funding for a wide array of programs.

Other content subject to the ban includes false claims that could spread fear or concern about the census. An example, Facebook said, would be posts that say participating in the census could lead to a law enforcement crackdown or that a participant's census information may be shared with other government agencies.

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