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Facebook preparing for violent unrest after US election

Facebook has planned for violent civic unrest following the United States presidential election, with content restrictions set to be imposed across the social network in such a scenario.

That is according to Facebooks head of global affairs, Nick Clegg, who outlined how the social media platform could deal with chaos in the days after 3 November.

Plans have been drawn-up for handling widespread civic unrest as well as the political dilemmas of contested election results, with the counting of mail ballots expected to take days.

There are some break-glass options available to us if there really is an extremely chaotic and, worse still, violent set of circumstances, said Mr Clegg, without elaborating on those measures.

Facebook has previously used pretty exceptional measures to significantly restrict the circulation of content on our platform, said Mr Clegg, who suggested the company could do the same in the US.

Mr Trump has spent months delegitimising mail-ballots, which experts believe could account for almost half of all ballots cast in 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The president has, meanwhile, encouraged his supporters to carry-out poll watching at voting places, sparking fears of voter intimidation and confrontation before any results are announced.

According to Mr Clegg, any high-stakes decisions will be made by Facebook executives, including himself, chief operating officer Sheryl Sandberg, and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

Original article
Author: The Independent

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