Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg Mark Zuckerberg expressed his concern over a "risk of civil unrest" during the U.S. presidential election.
He said the company has been taking measures to address the high risk of potential civil unrest surrounding the Nov. 3 U.S. presidential election.
“I’m worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days or weeks to be finalized, there is a risk of civil unrest across the country,” Mark Zuckerberg said on a call discussing Facebook’s third-quarter earnings. “Given this, companies like ours need to go well beyond what we’ve done before.”
Zuckerberg mentioned steps that the tech company has taken to manage the increased risk. The company's ways include helping users register to vote, presenting accurate information about the election, prohibiting new political ads one week prior to the election, blocking ads that attempt to delegitimize the election results, and disallowing problematic materials, such as groups focused on the QAnon conspiracy theory and Holocaust denialism.
“This is not a shift in our underlying philosophy or strong support of free expression,” he said. “Instead it is a reflection of the increased risk of violence and unrest.”
Facebook's measures ahead of the US election
In September, Facebook announced that it has taken down over 150 fake accounts that were run from China on its platform, including those posting about the US presidential election in November.
Facebook’s head of security policy Nathaniel Gleicher said the accounts they found “posted content both in support of and against presidential candidates Pete Buttigieg, Joe Biden and Donald Trump.”
The company hired social media analytics firm Graphika to examine the network of accounts. In its report, Graphika wrote: “In 2019-2020, the operation began running accounts that posed as Americans and posted a small amount of content about the US presidential election. Different assets supported President Donald Trump and his rival Joe Biden; one short-lived group supported former presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.”
Facebook did not specify whether the accounts had any connection with the Chinese government but only said they were run from Fujian province in China. However, it noted that the accounts had been posting about “Beijing’s interests in the South China Sea.” Graphika also stated that the accounts in the network had defended the Chinese government.
After it banned political ads that prematurely declare winners in the 2020 US presidential election, Facebook also prohibited ads that seek to “delegitimize any lawful method or process of voting”.
The tech firm’s decision follows concerns raised regarding claims that postal voting could encourage fraud. Facebook has also taken down ads sponsored by Trump and his supporters, which claim that accepting refugees would increase COVID-19 infection risk.
The said ads depicted Trump’s Democratic opponent Joe Biden talking about the US border and asylum seekers. Before these posts were removed, hundreds of thousands of people have seen over 38 versions of the ads.
Rob Leathern, director of product management at Facebook, tweeted: “As we get closer to Election Day we want to provide further clarity on policies we recently announced. Last week we said we’d prohibit ads that make premature declarations of victory. We also won’t allow ads with content that seeks to delegitimize the outcome of an election”
“For example, this would include calling a method of voting inherently fraudulent or corrupt, or using isolated incidents of voter fraud to delegitimize the result of an election,” Leathern explained.
He mentioned: “These changes apply to ads across Facebook and Instagram, and are effective immediately.”
