On Wednesday (September 23, 2020), Facebook said that it would not allow users to run ads on its services declaring victory in the November elections before the news channels have declared a winner.
The rules have been fine tuned for politicians, campaigns and potentially others can say on Facebook out of concern that people could try to manipulate its online social network to spread false information or sow unrest. Facebook did not single out Trump in its announcement that it would label posts by any campaign that tries to declare victory before the final election results are in but his opponent has shown no intention of declaring premature victory and has never challenged the integrity of US elections.
The social media behemoth has repeatedly declined to fact check and political lives in the past have been criticized for allowing misleading messages to spread politico reports.Facebook previously committed to policing user post that prematurely declared an election night victory.
This move expands the company's plans, which were announced earlier in September, to stop accepting new political ads in the week before the election which are going to take place in November. Facebook said political advertisers could resume creating new ads after Election Day.
The Social Media website has informed that it has signed partnership with the Reuters news agency amd the National Election Pool, a consortium of news organizations including NBC News, to determine winners in the election.
The democrats have warned of a “RED MIRAGE” on election night, citing expected delays in counting a record number of mail-in ballots this year, and have raised concerns that President Donald Trump could use Facebook to convince people he had won.
People have expressed concern that President Donald Trump could claim victory wrongly and prematurely. Among the people who have raised concerns in Susan Rice, who is former national security adviser in the Obama White House.
He had said that for the posts which are non-advertising and declare victory, the company would add a label to such posts noting that official results were not yet in. He also said that authoritative information about election results will be provided by the news organisation.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has also articulated concerns about confusion which are going to follow the election if results are not immediately clear. The company has also said that it was planning to append labels to posts that try to declare victory prematurely or deligitimize the outcome of the election.
An issue which is taken into consideration is the issue that counting ballots can often take weeks even in normal election years and due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, more pressure would be added.
However, Facebook did not immediately respond to a question about whether the new rule would apply to all elections set to take place on November 3 or only the U.S. presidential election.
