Why this prediction is judged wrong

The prediction: “Facebook will institute a policy in 2020 banning all political advertising on its platform for the remainder of that year.”

What actually happened:

1. Pre‑election limits, not a full ban.
   On September 3, 2020, Facebook announced it would only block new political and issue ads during the final week before the U.S. election, while allowing existing political ads to continue running through Election Day. This is a restriction, but clearly not a ban on all political ads. (reddit.com)

2. Post‑election “indefinite” pause was U.S.-only, not global.
   On October 7, 2020, Facebook said it would stop running all social issue, electoral or political ads in the U.S. after polls closed on November 3, for an indefinite period, as an election‑integrity measure. All the contemporaneous coverage describes this as applying “in the U.S.”, not worldwide. (cnbc.com) So even at maximum, the policy never banned all political advertising on the platform globally—only U.S. political/issue ads.

3. Georgia carve‑out means even the U.S. wasn’t fully covered for the rest of 2020.
   After the election, Facebook kept its U.S. political/issue ad pause in place, but on December 15, 2020 it announced that it would lift the ban in the state of Georgia starting December 16 to allow political ads for the January 5 Senate runoffs. (cnbc.com) Reporting notes that this Georgia exception was created while the nationwide U.S. pause otherwise remained in effect, and that Facebook later re‑imposed the ban in Georgia after the runoffs. (axios.com) That means there were political ads running on Facebook in at least part of the U.S. during the final weeks of 2020.

4. Ban extended into 2021 and then was lifted.
   Facebook did not tie the post‑election ban to “the remainder of 2020.” Instead, it described it as temporary/indefinite and ultimately lifted the U.S. political, electoral and social‑issue ad ban on March 4, 2021. (cnbc.com)

Conclusion

Even under a generous reading (limiting the claim to U.S. political ads):

• There was no platform‑wide, year‑long ban instituted in 2020.
• The strongest measure was a U.S.‑only pause that began after the election and then allowed exceptions (Georgia) before year‑end.

Because political ads were still allowed in at least some contexts (Georgia, and outside the U.S.) before December 31, 2020, the forecast that Facebook would ban all political advertising on its platform for the rest of 2020 did not come true.