Facebook Adds Label To Trump Post About Mail Voting


  • Facebook added a tag Tuesday to a post that President Donald Trump shared, driving misinformation about the vote by mail.
  • “Voting by mail, unless changed by the courts, will lead to the MOST CORRUPT ELECTION in our nation’s history! #RIGGEDELECTION,” the message said.
  • Shortly after, Facebook added a tag to the post inviting users to “get official voting information on how to vote in the 2020 US election” by visiting usa.gov.
  • The social media giant announced last week that it would begin adding labels to all voting posts that come from federal elected officials and candidates, regardless of whether they contain misinformation.
  • In the days that followed, Facebook has applied the tag to posts from multiple officials and candidates, including former Vice President Joe Biden.
  • Visit the Business Insider home page for more stories.

Facebook added a tag Tuesday to a post that President Donald Trump shared on the platform, sending false information about the vote by mail.

“Voting by mail, unless changed by the courts, will lead to the MOST CORRUPT ELECTION in our nation’s history! #RIGGEDELECTION,” the message said.

Shortly after, Facebook added a tag to the post inviting users to “get official voting information on how to vote in the 2020 US election” by visiting usa.gov.

win facebook post tag


Donald J. Trump / Facebook


The social media company announced last week that it would begin adding labels to all voting posts that come from federally elected officials and candidates. The tag would appear regardless of whether the posts contained erroneous information.

“We are creating a Voting Information Center to share authoritative information on how and when you can vote, including voter registration, mail voting and early voting,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post. . “During a pandemic where people may be afraid to go to the polls, sharing authoritative information about voting by mail will be especially important. We will display the Voting Information Center at the top of the Facebook and Instagram apps in the next months”.

In the days that followed, Facebook has applied the tag to posts from multiple officials and candidates, including former Vice President Joe Biden.

Facebook’s decision comes as the social media giant faces increased scrutiny over how it handles disinformation, disinformation, and propaganda on its platform, especially in the months leading up to the November elections.

“In a democracy it is really important that people can see for themselves what politicians are saying in order to make their own judgments,” Zuckerberg said in an interview late last year. “I don’t think a private company should censor politicians or the news.”

Meanwhile, Trump has doubled down on his claims of voter fraud and mail voting in recent months. In May, Twitter made the unprecedented decision to add fact check links to Trump’s tweets to spread false information about mail ballots.

The president’s claims about fraudulent voting date back to his 2016 campaign. At the time, while still following Hillary Clinton through various points in the polls, Trump said there would be widespread electoral fraud on Election Day.

After winning the election but losing the popular vote to Clinton, he claimed without proof that between three and five million people in California had voted illegally, tilting the popular vote in favor of Clinton.

Contrary to what Trump claims, electoral fraud, and especially the fraudulent use of absentee ballots, is very rare. And as Business Insider’s Grace Panetta reported, Trump’s crusade against mail-in and absentee voting could end up being counterproductive by making it difficult for Republican officials to get out of the vote.

However, the president has repeatedly protested against absentee voting and falsely claimed that it results in widespread electoral fraud, even when he and his own family and administration officials voted by mail.