Social media giant Facebook, recently announced in a dramatic move Thursday, to ban all new political ads on the platform a week prior to the presidential election on November 3rd. The action will only ban ads submitted within a week of the election, but will still display ads submitted before Oct. 27.
What We Know:
- This is an effort to cut back on confusion and deliberate misinformation ahead of the November vote, an election which President Donald Trump has repeatedly stated will be “the most rigged election in history,” without evidence.
- Along with the new submission restriction, Facebook will reportedly link any and all posts from candidates attempting to declare victory before the final vote counts from Reuters and the National Election Pool are official.
- Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has remained firm about allowing political ads on Facebook and Instagram, even if those ads have the potential to spread false information. Twitter and Pinterest are among those that have already decided to ban political ads on their platforms completely.
- Along with limiting ads closer to election time, the company promises more strict moderating of posts to rid the social media network of false information and scare tactics to discourage voting. One example that has and will be used as a message is that if you go vote, you will catch COVID-19. Facebook said it would also create a link to “authoritative information” on posts about the pandemic.
- To summarize, the submission limit would help put a stop to any last-minute messages that may compromise voting by spreading false claims, such as instantly contracting COVID-19, by going to polling locations.
- In the lengthy post Zuckerberg sent out early Thursday, he explained all of the various actions Facebook is taking in order to “protect our democracy”. Many of these include but are not limited to: eliminating posts that attempt to delegitimize election results, false voting methods, misinformation about COVID-19, foreign intervention and expand policies to help prevent violence against election officials.
“I believe our democracy is strong enough to withstand this challenge and deliver a free and fair election, even if it takes time for every vote to be counted,” Zuckerberg wrote in his Facebook post. “We’ve voted during global pandemics before. We can do this. But it’s going to take a concerted effort by all of us.”
