Facebook
FB
recently announced that it will disallow political and social issue ads in Georgia, beginning early Jan 6, 2021 after the conclusion of the state’s runoff elections.
Last month, Facebook had lifted its temporary ban on political ads in Georgia as the state prepared for runoff elections that would determine which party controls the United States Senate.
The company pledged to fight misinformation and interference in the Georgia election, including applying warning labels to content that its fact-checking partners rate false or partially false.
However, Facebook has been facing mounting scrutiny over the handling of misinformation on its platform.
Democrats have widely criticized Facebook along with other tech giants for not taking greater action toward misinformation and hate speech online, while Republicans have levelled attacks of censorship and allegations of anti-conservative bias over platforms’ decision to label posts with false information.
Efforts to Curb Mounting Criticism Over Misinformation Handling
The ban over political ads in Georgia comes after multiple reports of demonstrably false ads being promoted by Facebook surfaced, often receiving promotion even after moderators had removed an earlier version of the ad.
Shortly after Facebook lifted the ban in Georgia, American Crossroads, a top Republican super PAC, began running ads in disfavor of Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock. Facebook has promptly removed 80% of the American Crossroads’ ads since December, according to a
Reuters report
in an effort to curb politically influencing ads on its platform.
Avaaz, a global activist group, said it found 104 Republican Facebook ads between Dec 23 and 29 that appeared to violate the social network’s rules against sensationalist content and discriminatory practices of which, roughly 47 of 95 ads containing fact-checked political disinformation came from politicians.
Moreover, Facebook had previously banned paid advertising and applied fact-check labels to posts from the American Principle Project about transgender participation in sports,
NBC News reported
.
This Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company is also working with IFCN-certified third-party fact-checkers that debunk false claims. You can see
the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here
.
Apart from Facebook, tech companies like
Twitter
TWTR
,
Alphabet
GOOGL
owned Google and
Microsoft
MSFT
are leaving no stone unturned to curb misinformation and fake news.
Both Facebook and Google had paused political ads after the Nov 3 presidential election as part of measures to battle misinformation and other abuses.
Moreover, Twitter has prohibited ads related to elections, candidates, parties and other political content on its social platform. The ads also cannot mention specific legislations.
The company doesn’t allow political ads and has started labelling false tweets, including those from Donald Trump. Like in the presidential election, the company will label false or premature claims about results and content interfering in the election.
In August 2020, Microsoft announced tools to tackle the menace of deepfake content and disinformation. The company unveiled
Microsoft Video Authenticator
, developed by Microsoft Research in collaboration with its AI, Ethics and Effects in Engineering and Research (AETHER) Committee and Responsible AI Team.
The tech giant also introduced another tool that includes two components to enable people to differentiate between authentic and fake media.
We expect these efforts to bolster the brand value and trustworthiness of these companies in the long haul.
Breakout Biotech Stocks with Triple-Digit Profit Potential
The biotech sector is projected to surge beyond $775 billion by 2024 as scientists develop treatments for thousands of diseases. They’re also finding ways to edit the human genome to literally erase our vulnerability to these diseases.
Zacks has just released Century of Biology: 7 Biotech Stocks to Buy Right Now to help investors profit from 7 stocks poised for outperformance. Our recent biotech recommendations have produced gains of +50%, +83% and +164% in as little as 2 months. The stocks in this report could perform even better.
See these 7 breakthrough stocks now>>
Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days.
Click to get this free report