Pelosi lambastes Facebook over Trump ad a week before census

A week before most people can start answering the 2020 census, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday chastised Facebook for allowing the reelection campaign of President Donald Trump to run ads directing people to a survey that she says people will confuse with the once-a-decade head count.

At a news conference held by House members from the black, Hispanic, Native American and Asian-Pacific caucuses, Pelosi called the survey sponsored by the Trump reelection campaign, “an absolute lie."

“A lie that is consistent with the misrepresentation policy of Facebook," Pelosi said. “But now they're messing with who we are as Americans. I know the profit motive is their business model, but it should not come at the cost of counting who is in our country."

Facebook on Thursday didn't immediately respond to an email inquiry.

The ad says, “President Trump needs you to take the Official 2020 Congressional District Census today." Clicking on a red button saying “Take the Survey” leads to a website with questions asking visitors about party affiliation, whether they intend to support Trump and which media organizations they get their information, among other questions.

Similar mailings have been distributed around the U.S.

Census Bureau officials have been on high alert for online misinformation aimed at confusing people about who is eligible to fill out the form or how to properly file it, along with imitation websites posing as the official census site.

The bureau has spent the last year forging relationships with the major tech platforms -- Facebook, Twitter and Google -- to put out accurate information about how the census works and yank misinformation about the form from their sites.

In January, Facebook began banning ads that discourage people from participating...