Today, Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg outlined extensive measures and policies that are being put in place to help maintain the integrity and legitimacy of the upcoming U.S. elections in November. In a lengthy, but comprehensive, Facebook post, Zuckerberg warns of potential issues Americans face when it comes to receiving information on social media, and warns of potential delays in election results, due to vote by mail ballots and the conflict that may cause. Additionally, the post explains how Facebook’s different platforms including Messenger and Instagram will help combat these threats to people’s right to vote and what decisions they make at the polls.
Founded in 2004, Facebook was pivotal in the revolution of social media and now sits as a major conglomerate and one of the ‘big five’ technology companies in silicon valley. Being one of the first always has its issues, however; in its sixteen-year lifespan, Facebook has been the center of controversy surrounding taxes, monopolies, data collecting and most recently, the spreading of misinformation on its platforms. In the last presidential election, coordinated online efforts by foreign governments and other individuals succeeded in interference, and the threat hasn’t gone away. Facebook is currently running the largest voting information campaign in American history. This election year, it has already driven 24 million clicks to voter registration websites and Zuckerberg himself has donated $300 million to non-partisan organizations supporting states’ voting infrastructure.
Posted to Facebook’s news page, the company explains how it is making countless efforts to combat any and all threats to information and briefly summarizes them. This is followed by the lengthy manifesto posted by Zuckerberg outlining everything in even further detail. While it is encouraged that anyone using these platforms read Zuckerberg’s full post, there are some key points to note. A major bullet point is Facebook’s decision not to accept any new political ads the week leading up to election day. Mark Zuckerberg explains that in the final days of the elections, there may not be enough time to contest new claims that have been posted. To that note however, advertisers can continue running ads they started running before the final week and adjust the targeting, but said ads will have already been published transparently in Facebook’s Ads Library so fact-checkers and journalists can dissect them.
Facebook’s ‘Prepare For The Worst’ Approach
In the four years since the last Presidential election, Facebook has faced a lot of scrutiny and responsibility for foreign interference on its platform. As a result, the website has lost a lot of credibility. So it’s no wonder that Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook Inc. are doing anything and everything they can to ensure the same issues don’t happen again. Amongst countless other warnings and new policies, Zuckerberg worries that election results may take days to become finalized and that such uncertainty could lead to civil unrest. That’s why Facebook plans to attach a label to content that seeks to delegitimize the election results or questions the legitimacy of voting methods, by claiming fraud through lawful methods of voting for example.
This indeed will be an election during a storm of circumstances the United States has never before seen. If the public has learned anything in four years, it’s that there will be attacks to manipulate voters in a certain direction or to miss their vote completely, and there should be genuine concern that the results may be delayed and cause turmoil stateside. The best citizens can do is exercise their right to vote early and vote often, and to continuously fact-check the information they come across. Especially on social media and furthermore as it relates to the elections. Facebook appears to have a lot of preemptive precautions in place, which is reassuring, but its additionally up to people on Facebook to stay sharp and keep calm during what is sure to be a unique election.
