By Jeff Horwitz
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (September 4, 2020).
Facebook Inc. will prohibit new political advertisements in the
week before the U.S. presidential election in November and seek to
flag any candidates' premature claims of victory, Chief Executive
Mark Zuckerberg said.
The steps are meant to head off last-minute misinformation
campaigns and limit the potential for civil unrest, Mr. Zuckerberg
said in a statement Thursday.
"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, 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 leveled a sustained
attack on the integrity of the vote, 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 likely delays in tallying election results
due to an expected 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.
The Trump campaign criticized Facebook's decision Thursday.
"In the last seven days of the most important election in our
history, President Trump will be banned from defending himself on
the largest platform in America," said Samantha Zager, the
campaign's deputy national press secretary, in a statement. "When
millions of voters will be making their decisions, the President
will be silenced by the Silicon Valley Mafia."
The campaign for Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden
declined comment on Facebook's plans.
Ben Block, a spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign
Committee, said Facebook's changes wouldn't address what he
described as the platform's fundamental problems.
"Democrats will continue to urge these platforms to recognize
the great responsibility they have in 2020 to protect voters from
dangerous disinformation," he said. "That means real, concrete
action to combat disinformation that is being organically spread by
users on their platforms."
Facebook didn't respond to a request for comment on campaign
officials' remarks.
Among the moves Facebook announced Thursday are plans to append
a label to any false or premature claims of victory by candidates.
The label will refer users to Facebook's voting information center,
which on Election Day will include voting results sourced from the
Reuters news service.
Other new Facebook election policies include limiting the volume
of messages that can be sent through its Messenger platform and
expanding rules against voter suppression to cover implicit
attempts at misleading users about voting procedures. Facebook will
also seek to protect election officials from threats of violence
during the vote-counting process, Mr. Zuckerberg said. The company
said it would immediately implement its plans to take down
misinformation about voting.
The social-media giant's role in the November vote has been
closely scrutinized given its dominance and the pivotal role that
some -- including some Facebook executives -- believe it played in
the outcome of the 2016 contest.
Progressives have accused Mr. Zuckerberg and Facebook's public
policy team of bending rules to avoid confrontations with Mr.
Trump, whereas conservatives have broadly accused the Menlo Park,
Calif., company of liberal bias.
Mr. Zuckerberg has said that 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 atop 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 on Nov. 3, though the company hasn't shared
information about its progress toward that goal.
Other social-media companies have revealed changes in recent
days to improve the reliability of information users see on their
platforms. While Pinterest Inc. already disallows political ads,
the image-sharing company said Thursday it would no longer show ads
to users who search for common election-related terms such as
candidate names or "vote."
Pinterest also expanded its misinformation policy, saying it
would remove false or misleading information about how to vote or
engage in civic duties such as providing data for the Census.
Twitter Inc. said Wednesday that it would add pinned tweets and
descriptions to help explain why certain topics might be trending
on its platform.
Such changes come as Mr. Trump continues to attack the
credibility of the election. He has alleged without evidence that
it would likely be "rigged" -- a claim he also made in the run-up
to his 2016 victory -- 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 as a way of testing the mail-in
balloting system he has long criticized. The president's remarks
prompted a top state election official to clarify that attempting
to vote twice is illegal and that "soliciting someone to do so also
is a violation of North Carolina law."
Facebook added a notice Thursday beneath a post in which Mr.
Trump suggested voters who cast mail ballots should also "go to
your Polling Place to see whether or not your Mail In Vote has been
Tabulated," saying that voting by mail "has a long history of
trustworthiness" and directing users to Facebook's voter
information page.
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
voting.
--Rebecca Ballhaus and Sarah E. Needleman contributed to this
article.
Write to Jeff Horwitz at Jeff.Horwitz@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
September 04, 2020 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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