2020 US elections: Facebook, Twitter to put labels on posts claiming early victory
Twitter said it would consider state election officials and news outlets such as ABC News, AP, CNN and Fox News as official sources for results.
Social media platforms Facebook and Twitter on Monday noted their plans to put labels on posts of the United States election candidates and campaigns that claim victory ahead of the official results.
The elections will be held on Tuesday. Results of the United States polling is usually known on the night of election day. This year, however, due to the increase in mail-in voting triggered by the coronavirus pandemic, the results in many states are expected to be delayed.
In an updated blog post, Twitter said it will label tweets by candidates that falsely claim victory ahead of the official results. The accounts and tweets eligible for the label are accounts with 2020 US election tags, US-based accounts with more than 1 lakh followers and tweets that have a significant engagement – over 25,000 responses such as likes or retweets.
Twitter said it would consider state election officials and news outlets that have independent election decision desks such as ABC News, Associated Press, CNN and Fox News as official sources for results. The microblogging platform added that it will also remove tweets that encourage violence or call for people to interfere with election results or the smooth operation of polling places.
In a statement, Facebook said it will run a notification at the top of the app as well as on Instagram and apply labels to the posts of the candidates taking people to the Voting Information Center after the polls end. “But, if a candidate or party declares premature victory before a race is called by major media outlets, we will add more specific information in the notifications that counting is still in progress and no winner has been determined,” it added.
The social media platform further said that it will add an information label to content that talks about the legitimacy of the election or claims that lawful methods of voting such as mail-in ballots will lead to fraud. “We will help people understand the process with notifications at the top of the Facebook and Instagram apps, through Facts About Voting from the Bipartisan Policy Center, and curated news in people’s News Feed and the Voting Information Center,” Facebook said.
The company will also temporarily suspend social, political and electoral advertisements in the US after the polls close on November 3.
“In addition to the steps that we already take to remove calls for coordinated interference at or bringing weapons to polling places, when we become aware of them, we will also remove calls for people to engage in poll watching when those calls use militarized language or suggest that the goal is to intimidate, exert control, or display power over election officials or voters.”
— Facebook
On September 3, Facebook had announced several steps to reduce “the risks of post-election confusion”, including not accepting new political advertisements a week before the November 3 presidential polls in the United States.
Zuckerberg also said that the social media platform would remove all misinformation posts about the election and the coronavirus. He added that the company has strengthened its enforcement on “militias and conspiracy networks” such as QAnon and other networks that could be used to create unrest or lead to violence post-election.
It had earlier also mentioned putting labels on candidates declaring victory ahead of the official results.
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