Facebook announced today that it will ban all political, election, and social issue ads after the US presidential election that will be held on Nov. 3, in order to curb misinformation. This came with tensions rising between President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger Sen. Joe Biden.
The company reported, on election day, Facebook will remove implicit calls to visit polling places to intimidate voters that use militarized language such as “army” or “battle.” Also, Facebook will notify users of the latest results at the top of news feeds on Facebook and Instagram.
Last August, according to Times, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and some of his lieutenants have begun holding daily meetings about Trump’s potential response should he lose, including a “kill switch” to shut off political advertising after the election.
Those concerns are a high priority for social media companies whose platforms have been used in elections around the world to spread conspiracy theories, pisive messages, and outright falsehoods.
Also, the New York Times reported that employees at the company are worried that President Trump and supporters may use the social media network to de-legitimize the election results should he lose to former Vice President Joe Biden on November 3.
On other hand, there are concerns that an ad blackout may hurt get out the vote campaigns, or limit a candidate’s ability to respond widely to breaking news or new information.
In contrast, Facebook has come under intense criticism for its policy of allowing politicians to run false ads. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has strenuously defended his company’s stance and argued last fall that banning political ads would not be a good idea.
Follow the latest news on Google News
