Facebook Will Temporarily Demote Posts That Spread Election Misinformation

Topline

Facebook on Thursday said it would demote content “our systems predict may be misinformation” as conspiracy theories about election fraud—including those promoted by the president and his children—spread rapidly on the social networking platform.

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testifies before the House Financial Services Committee … [+] in the Rayburn House Office Building on Capitol Hill October 23, 2019 in Washington, DC.

Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

Key Facts

A Facebook spokesperson told Forbes the company is “seeing more reports of inaccurate claims about the election” and “while many of these claims have low engagement on our platform, we are taking additional temporary steps.”

These include “demotions for content on Facebook and Instagram that our systems predict may be misinformation, including debunked claims about voting” and “limiting the distribution of Live videos that may relate to the election on Facebook.”

These are the most consequential actions Facebook has taken to limit election misinformation, which the company only planned to deploy under extremely chaotic or violent circumstances.

Up until now, Facebook was labeling posts, including from President Donald Trump’s, and using its third-party fact-checking system—but unfounded conspiracy theories about voter fraud in battleground states have still been spread, sometimes by the president’s sons, Eric and Don Jr.

Key Background

The additional measures come after Facebook earlier Thursday removed “Stop the Steal,” a fast-growing group that accused Democrats of stealing the election and included multiple members who called for violence. The company also blocked the #StopTheSteal hashtag along with #Sharpiegate, which erroneously claims elections officials gave Trump supporters Sharpies to fill out ballots, which conspiracy theorists falsely say would invalidate their votes. Also this week, Facebook said it would apply labels to posts by candidates declaring premature victory in individual states, not just the overall race.

Tangent

Internal Facebook tools show the platform is increasingly becoming more incendiary. According to an internal metric that measures “violence and incitement trends” increased by 45% since October 31, BuzzFeed News reported.

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