Joe Biden, presumptive democratic nominee, tells Facebook to take action against false information before the 2020 US presidential election.
In an open letter to Facebook on Thursday, Biden called on the social media giant to address several policies before the election this year. He highlighted the need to prevent false information.
“Tens of millions of Americans rely on Facebook as a news source,” the Biden campaign wrote. “But the company continues to amplify misinformation and lets candidates pay to target and confuse voters with lies.”
The four specific actions Biden recommends to Facebook are:
- Support only authoritative and trustworthy news sources, rather than bad actors and conspiracy theorists
- Quickly control false information.
- Ban political candidates and political action committees from using paid ads to promote misinformation.
- Set clear rules about how people with Facebook accounts, including the president, can be involved in the election.
Facebook issued a prompt response. The social media firm said that elected officials must establish regulations for what social networks can and cannot allow.
“Just as they have done with broadcast networks — where the US government prohibits rejecting politicians’ campaign ads — the people’s elected representatives should set the rules, and we will follow them,” Facebook said.
“There is an election coming in November and we will protect political speech, even when we strongly disagree with it.”
Biden’s statements arrive after a tumultuous time for Facebook, when its own employees and business partners slammed the company for not responding to a post by President Donald Trump. In his post, the president said that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts,” in reference to Black Lives Matter protesters.
Meanwhile, Facebook employees who criticized the decision not to delete or control the post pointed out that it violated the platform's community standards. The rule violated pertains to prohibiting language that stokes serious violence.
Biden also touches on a Facebook policy that allows politicians to place misinformation in paid advertising on the platform. That policy was widely lambasted, with protests taking place outside Facebook’s headquarters in January.
Twitter's action
Twitter put a label warning about the president’s content, which they have to dismiss before they can read the tweet.
The warning reads: “Twitter has determined that it may be in the public’s interest for the Tweet to remain accessible.”
The president tweeted: “I can’t stand back & watch this happen to a great American City, Minneapolis. A total lack of leadership. Either the very weak Radical Left Mayor, Jacob Frey, get his act together and bring the City under control, or I will send in the National Guard & get the job done right…..”
He follows this with the post hidden by Twitter, which reads: “….These THUGS are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won’t let that happen. Just spoke to Governor Tim Walz and told him that the Military is with him all the way. Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Thank you!”
After Twitter hid the tweet, the official White House account re-posted the president’s message but the social media company placed the same warning on it.
Twitter also disallows users from liking or retweeting the tweet. Trump clarified that he never intended to incite violence.
