Facebook will block new political advertising the week before Election Day
Source: Washington Post
Facebook plans to block new advertising the week before the presidential election — the first time the company has taken action to limit political advertising in the United States, the company said Thursday.
The move to limit ads, part of a spate of election-related announcements, is an attempt to reduce misinformation that is expected to flood social networks as Election Day draws near.
The company also said that it would label posts by any candidate or campaign that tries to declare victory before the final results are in, directing people to the official results from Reuters. It will do the same for any posts that try to delegitimize the outcome of the election — for example, a claim that voting by mail could lead to fraud. It has also started to limit users’ ability to forward articles on its Messenger platform to large groups of people.
The moves are unlikely to quell criticism that the social network plays a harmful role in the democratic process. Some experts have called for removing political advertising entirely, an option Facebook once considered. A person familiar with the company’s thinking, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said the company was trying to find middle ground. Facebook is aware that campaigns target their strongest and potentially misleading attacks for the few days before the election, when a larger share of the electorate is paying attention.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/09/03/facebook-political-ads/
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