META Meta Platforms Inc

By Jeff Horwitz 

Facebook Inc. will prohibit new political advertisements in the week before the U.S. presidential election in November and seek to flag premature claims of victory by candidates, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday.

The steps are meant to head off last-minute misinformation campaigns and limit the potential for civil unrest, Mr. Zuckerberg said.

"This election is not going to be business as usual," he said, noting both the difficulties of voting during a pandemic and likely attacks on the credibility of the results.

"I'm worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days or even weeks to be finalized, there could be an increased risk of civil unrest across the country," he said in the statement, adding that "our democracy is strong enough to withstand this challenge and deliver a free and fair election."

The U.S. intelligence community has warned of attempts at foreign interference and President Trump has called the vote's integrity into question, raising concerns about a social-media-fueled dispute over the election's outcome. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Department of Homeland Security and intelligence agencies have asked Facebook and other social media companies to plan for such volatile circumstances.

Mr. Zuckerberg cited expected delays in tallying election results due to a pandemic-driven surge in absentee voting as a concern.

"It's important that we prepare for this possibility in advance and understand that there could be a period of intense claims and counterclaims as the final results are counted," he wrote.

Among the moves Facebook announced on Thursday are plans to append a label to any false or premature claims of victory by candidates that will direct users to vote tallies and current results. The Reuters news service will join with Facebook to provide that information.

Facebook also plans to prohibit campaigns from running new political ads during the final week of the campaign, Mr. Zuckerberg said. The step is meant to prevent campaigns from promoting misinformation at the last minute, when there won't be adequate time to rebut it, the company said.

Other new Facebook election policies include limitations on the volume of messages that can be sent through its Messenger product and an expansion of Facebook's rules against voter suppression to cover implicit attempts to mislead Facebook users about voting procedures. Facebook will also seek to protect election officials from threats of violence during the vote-counting process, he said. The company will also start implementing its plans to take down misinformation about voting, effective immediately.

Facebook's role in the November vote has been closely scrutinized given the social media platform's dominance and the pivotal role that some -- including some Facebook executives -- believe it played in determining the outcome of the 2016 contest.

Progressives have accused Mr. Zuckerberg and Facebook's public policy team of bending rules to avoid confrontations with President Trump, whereas conservatives have broadly accused the Menlo Park, Calif., company of liberal bias.

Mr. Zuckerberg has said Facebook doesn't favor either side and that he and his wife would donate $300 million to bolster funding for election infrastructure. A voting information center will soon appear at the top of users' pages on Facebook and Instagram, which the company owns, remaining there until the election.

Facebook has said it aims to register four million voters before election day, though the company hasn't released information laying out its progress toward that figure.

The steps announced by Facebook's come amid a sustained attack by President Trump on the credibility of the election. He has alleged without evidence that it will likely be "rigged" by widespread voter fraud or the suppression of Republican votes. On Wednesday, he encouraged supporters in North Carolina to try to vote both by mail and in person to ensure their ballots get counted.

A bipartisan group of election officials has sought to reassure voters that mail-in ballots are secure and outlined ways for state and local officials to prepare for increased absentee and mail-in ballots because of the pandemic.

Write to Jeff Horwitz at Jeff.Horwitz@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

September 03, 2020 07:14 ET (11:14 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.