Facebook launches major changes in attempt to 'protect democracy' ahead of US election

Facebook received sustained scrutiny for its role in the last election, including criticism over false or misleading posts that were left available on the site.

Among the changes, Facebook will stop new political and issue ads from running during the final week of the election campaign, Mr Zuckerberg said.

Facebook does allow politicians to run ads that included false claims, and for the most part Mr Zuckerberg did not suggest that policy would change.

He did say however that particular kinds of misinformation posts that spread false stories about voting or those that use Covid-19 to discourage participation will be limited.

False claims about polling will be removed, he said, such as anything that gives wrong information about how or when to vote.

On Messenger, it will limit the number of people that a message can be forwarded onto in one go such a move has already been implemented on WhatsApp, and led to a drastic reduction in the amount of information being passed around without being checked.

The new update will be the last change to Facebook's rules before the result of November's election is officially declared, Mr Zuckerberg said.

Original article
Author: Independent

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