Facebook will temporarily disable all ads focused on political and social issues after polls close on Election Day as part of an drive to “ reduce opportunities for disarray or ill-usage , ” it say Wednesday .
Guy Rosen , Facebook ’s frailty president of ware management , said the company is preparing for what could be one of the most grueling election nighttime counts since at least 2000 . “ We ’ve get it on for a long time that the 2020 election in the US would be unlike any other . We ’ve been machinate for this election with a unique set of Cartesian product and policies , ” he say .
“ Getting the final election resultant role this class may take longer than premature election due to the pandemic and more people voting by mail , ” Rosen bring . “ So we ’re preparing a range of policies and product to keep people informed and prevent the spread of misinformation . ”
US President Donald Trump speaks during a discussion with state attorneys general on protection from social media abuses in the Cabinet Room of the White House in Washington, DC, on 5 February 2025.Photo: Mandel Ngan (Getty Images)
Advertisers will be notified , Facebook enounce , when it decides to lift the restriction .
Covid-19 has led to a massive upsurge in balloting by chain mail . Americans have already cast more than5.6 millionballots , according to the U.S. Elections Project ; that ’s up from under justa half - millionat this point in 2016 .
The unprecedented volume of ring armor - in ballots intend overtime counts could play an oversize role in the tally . And while many politicos are working to discourage voters from fixating on so - called “ end of the world scenario , ” others propose they should be steel themselves mentally for an election dark turn over “ election calendar month . ”
Facebook has faced a firestorm of critique over its handling of the election so far ; in particular , the determination to allow ads that intentionally mislead voters . In June , the company said it would , like its competitor Twitter , beginlabeling postsby political leader who dishonour its rule . So far , Facebook has place warning on about 150 million pieces of content , it says , and manoeuver roughly 39 million users to itsVoting Information Center , a page that offered vetted news and information .
Facebook also say it has polish off some 6.5 billion bogus accounts . The biggest provocateur , however , are unlikely to come from Beijing or Moscow , but Washington D.C. , and it ’s indecipherable what impact , if any , banning ad after the election may have . Trump ’s personal page , for representative , has garnered some 30 million followers and he can share his thoughts directly with these user without spending a dime bag .
“ Since 2016 , we ’ve built an ripe system fuse people and technology to review the billions of piece of content that are posted to our platform every day , ” Rosen said . “ country - of - the - art AI system flag cognitive content that may violate our policy , user describe content to us they believe is confutative and our own teams review message . ”
Added Rosen : “ We ’ve also been build a parallel viral content review system to flag posts that may be get viral – no matter what type of content it is – as an extra safety net . This helps us get capacity that our traditional systems may not pick up . ”
Facebook ’s answer to misleading Trump posts has been lame at best so far .
Last calendar month , Trump evidence supporters who ’d already vote by mail to show up at polling locations and sample to vote again if they are ineffective to confirm their chain armor - in voting was counted . The trouble is that in most states , officials wo n’t begin counting chain armour - in voting until after the polls are shut . ( This is usually a matter of law of nature . ) In 28 states , voting doubly is a felony , meaning that following Trump ’s advice to the letter of the alphabet could go some voters to snap off the law .
Facebook did not take down the mail , but instead added a recording label that reads : “ ballot by mail service has a long history of trustiness in the US and the same is predicted this year . ”
Trump has repeatedly exact that mail - in elector dupery is rearing , which is a lie . There is no grounds to suggest widespread voter fraud of any kind has occurred in mod U.S. political sympathies . All form of voter fraudare rarefied , as FBI Director Chris Wray told the Senate last month . “ We have not seen , historically , any kind of coordinated interior elector fraud exertion in a major election , whether it ’s by mail service or otherwise , ” he say .
A recent Washington Post analysis of data collected from three ballot - by - postal service State — Colorado , Oregon , and Washington — found that only0.0025 percentof vote had been sag for probe .
Trump has also repeatedlytold supportersthat the “ only way ” he will lose “ is if this election is set up . ” If election dark ends with a cliffhanger and Trump begins baselessly accusing Democrats of assay to slip the election — which he has already preemptively done — there is no predicting precisely what the ramification may be .
For its part , Facebook says it will not only label any premature resolve of victory by nominee but let in “ specific info … that the tally is still in progress and no winner has been determined . ” But in whom are elector more probable to invest religion is the question : Facebook or the candidate that they ’re so dire to see exulting ?
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