Facebook
FB
will ban ads that seek to delegitimize the outcome of the U.S. presidential race, per a
Reuters report
. The news comes a day after President Donald Trump claimed that voting by mail leads to election fraud during the first presidential debate.
The policy will prohibit any ads that call specific methods of voting, such as voting by mail, as being inherently fraudulent, corrupt or rigged. It also bans ads that claim rampant voter fraud could alter the results of the election.
Last week, the company announced it would reject ads from Donald Trump or Joe Biden claiming a premature win on Nov 3. Due to mail-in voting, the electoral process is expected to take longer than in the past, and the official results likely will not be announced on Nov 3, creating room for speculation.
Facebook’s Measures to Combat Electoral Misinformation
Facebook is seeking to limit the spread of misinformation about the elections with ad policies targeting the 2020 election. The social-media giant has already banned new political ads in the week before the election.
Markedly, in August, the company
banned misleading manipulated media
, including edited images and deepfakes on the social network. Facebook has collaborated with 50 global experts fact checking in over 40 languages with technical, policy, media, legal, civic and academic backgrounds to help in detecting deepfakes.
The company’s new policy will prohibit videos that are edited or synthesized for clarity or quality and are not easy to identify as fake. Moreover, videos including graphic violence, voter suppression and hate speech, which violate community standards laid down by Facebook, will be removed.
Meanwhile, Facebook is working on a new Voting Information Center that will appear at the top of News Feed and Instagram’s feed, directing users to information on how and where to vote, including information on how to register to vote and how to vote by mail. Users can also turn on alerts that will remind them to vote and direct them to polling places come November.
The Voting Information Center contains links to posts that discuss voting, including posts from politicians in an attempt to share authoritative information and as part of an effort to get 4 million people to register to vote in the 2020 U.S. elections.
Notably, the company removed 50 deceptive networks last year and another 18 so far this year that sought to manipulate public debate from Russia, Iran and the United States.
Others Prepping Policies Related to Political Content
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.
Twitter
removed over 130 accounts
linked to Iran that were attempting to disrupt the public conversation during the first presidential debate yesterday. Twitter also included screenshots of examples of posts from the removed accounts.
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.
Last week, Google announced it would ban election ads after polls close on Nov 3. Meanwhile, in June, Google
eliminated ads
, which were misleading users searching for voting related information. Reportedly, users searching terms like register to vote, vote by mail and other related terms were getting directed to ads that charged them huge fees especially the ones providing registration information.
In August, 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.
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