Facebooks plan to prevent election misinformation: Allowing it, mostly
The logistics alone are more complicated than ever this year, thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, and voters around the nation are likely to encounter complications of one kind or another.
The company has a bad track record of being used as a tool of misinformation and manipulation when it comes to elections.
Some of those measures, alas, feel like shutting the barn door when the horse left so long ago you forgot you ever even had one.
Misinformation about voting, the election, and both candidates for the presidency is already rampant on Facebook and every other media platform, and it's being spread by actors both foreign and domestic.
That landing page takes a user's locationapproximate or specific, if enabledto display voter-registration information, vote-by-mail eligibility, voter ID requirements, and other state and local information.
That will continue, Zuckerberg said, and the company will not only continue to enforce its policies against voter suppression, but expand them:
Facebook has been slow to fact-check claims made by Trump or his campaign, but it does seem to be making good on appending labels to posts explicitly relating to voter misinformation.
Unfortunately, the ads that political advertisers place before the deadline are allowed to be full of lies, and Facebook will not fact-check them. That's been the company's long-standing policy, and it evidently has no intention of reversing course for the rest of this campaign season.
The company cracked down on QAnon about two weeks ago, removing thousands of Facebook and Instagram groups, pages, and accounts.
We use cookies and analyse traffic to this site. By continuing to use this site, closing this banner, or clicking "I Agree", you agree to the use of cookies. Read our privacy poplicy for more information.