US Presidential Election 2020 : Facebook launches significant alterations in an attempt to 'protect democracy' ahead of the US election
Facebook launches significant alterations in an attempt to 'protect democracy' ahead of the US election
Facebook has launched a host of changes intended to protect the upcoming US election.
They include both technical changes to its apps and new policies that it says will help encourage voting, give people authoritative information and reduce the risk of "violence and unrest" in the wake of the results.
The company will stop the repeated forwarding of messages on WhatsApp, ban new political ads in the week before the election, remove posts that suggest that people will get Covid-19 if they vote, and add an "informational label" to posts that try to delegitimize the election, Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.
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.
"The US elections are just two months away, and with Covid-19 affecting communities across the country, I'm concerned about the challenges people could face when voting," he wrote in a public post. "I'm also worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days or even weeks to be finalized, there could be an increased risk of civil unrest across the country."
Among the changes, Facebook will stop new political and issue ads from running during the final week of the election campaign, Mr. Zuckerberg said. While older ads will still be able to run on the site during that time, they will have to be published at least a week before, which he suggested will give time for journalists and fact-checkers to "contest" them.
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. Instead, he said that the new rules would mean that ads would be "scrutinized" by the media and by fact-checkers.
He did say however those 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.
Facebook will also introduce technical changes, it said. 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.
They include both technical changes to its apps and new policies that it says will help encourage voting, give people authoritative information and reduce the risk of "violence and unrest" in the wake of the results.
The company will stop the repeated forwarding of messages on WhatsApp, ban new political ads in the week before the election, remove posts that suggest that people will get Covid-19 if they vote, and add an "informational label" to posts that try to delegitimize the election, Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post.
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.
Mr Zuckerberg said that the new election "is not going to be business as usual" and suggested that he was afraid of "civil unrest in the wake of the results".
"The US elections are just two months away, and with Covid-19 affecting communities across the country, I'm concerned about the challenges people could face when voting," he wrote in a public post. "I'm also worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days or even weeks to be finalized, there could be an increased risk of civil unrest across the country."
Among the changes, Facebook will stop new political and issue ads from running during the final week of the election campaign, Mr. Zuckerberg said. While older ads will still be able to run on the site during that time, they will have to be published at least a week before, which he suggested will give time for journalists and fact-checkers to "contest" them.
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. Instead, he said that the new rules would mean that ads would be "scrutinized" by the media and by fact-checkers.
He did say however those 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.
Facebook will also introduce technical changes, it said. 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.
Related topic -
Facebook launches major changes in an attempt to 'protect democracy' ahead of US election, America Election 2020, who is leading the 2020 US election polls, Biden vs Trump, 2020 United States presidential election, US Presidential Election 2020
Facebook launches major changes in an attempt to 'protect democracy' ahead of US election, America Election 2020, who is leading the 2020 US election polls, Biden vs Trump, 2020 United States presidential election, US Presidential Election 2020
Comments
Post a Comment
Subscribe our newsletter to get exclusive news from this website, share our news on your social network.