Home Business Facebook adds policies to fight voter suppression
Business - October 17, 2018

Facebook adds policies to fight voter suppression

Social media giant, Facebook, is putting new policies in place to guide against voters suppression even as the U.S. midterm elections draw nearer.

Facebook says it is broadening its policies against voter suppression.

According to Facebook, the updates were designed to address new types of abuse that the social giant is detecting, says Jessica Leinwand, public policy manager, Facebook.

The company already prohibits offers to buy or sell votes, as well as misrepresentations about the dates, locations, times and qualifications for casting a ballot.

“We have been removing this type of content since 2016,” Leinwand notes in a new blog post.

Adding to those measures, Facebook is now banning misrepresentations about how to vote, such as claims that one can vote by text message and statements about whether a vote will be counted.

For example, Facebook’s system will now remove a statement like: “If you voted in the primary, your vote in the general election won’t count.”

The company recently introduced a new feature on its platform so users can report voting information they believe to be incorrect. Facebook also established dedicated reporting channels for state election authorities so they can do the same.

Noting that Facebook’s effort remains a work in progress, Leinwand admitted the company is still unable to verify every claim about the conditions of polling places worldwide.

“In these cases, we will send content to our third-party fact-checkers for review,” Leinwand said.

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