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2020 U.S. elections
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Facebook has announced that it will not accept new political ads in the seven days leading up to the November 3 US election.
However, the company will continue to allow existing ads to continue to be promoted and targeted to different users.
measure in a Facebook post.
He said he was “concerned” about divisions in the country that could lead to civil unrest.
He added that Facebook would also tag the posts of candidates trying to declare victory before the votes have been counted.
The social network has faced criticism for allowing political ads to be “micro-targeted” on its platform so that they are only seen by small communities rather than being discussed more widely in the days after they appeared.
The new steps could serve as a precedent for how the firm handles elections elsewhere in the future.
‘Divided nation’
“This election is not going to be business as usual,” wrote Zuckerberg.
“With our nation so divided and election results that can take days or even weeks to finalize, there could be an increased risk of civil unrest across the country,” he added.
- no new political announcements will be accepted in the week before the election
- Posts claiming that people will get Covid-19 if they participate in the vote will be removed.
- Information labels will be attached to publications that seek to delegitimize the outcome of the elections.
- Tags will also be added to the posts of candidates seeking to claim victory before the final results are obtained.
Zuckerberg also said Facebook had also “strengthened” its enforcement policies against movements known for spreading conspiracy theories, such as QAnon.
Thousands of Facebook groups associated with these movements have already been removed, he said.
However, the moves have drawn criticism.
The head of Media Matters for America, a liberal media monitoring body, described it as a pointless public relations stunt.
“They will allow political ads to be republished and targeted to new groups during [the last] week provided the ad ran and had an impression before October 27, “Angelo Carusone tweeted.
“So you can run a bad ad now, pause it, and then reuse it that week.”
An academic who specializes in how technology and politics interact made a related point.
“The campaigns will produce and execute thousands of creative pieces in the days leading up to the cut so that they can run in the final week,” said Daniel Kreiss, associate professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
