Facebook says it's promoting accurate info on vote-by-mail

Facebook said Thursday that it is working to help Americans vote by mail, including by tifying users about how to request ballots and wher date of ir state's election has changed.

Vote By Mail tification connects Facebook users to information about how to request a ballot. It is targeted to voters in states where excuse is needed to vote by mail or where fears of coronavirus are accepted as a universal excuse.

“In this constantly evolving environment, we remain focused on working with election authorities to provide people with authoritative, geographically targeted voting information," Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook's he of security policy, told House Intelligence Committee at a hearing on election security and online disinformation.

In working to facilitate voting by mail during pandemic, company is stepping into politically sensitive ground.

hearing also featured officials from Twitter and Google and centered on efforts by techlogy companies to police spre of disinformation, tied to both election and COVID-19, on platforms. Those are significant challenges in a country bracing for potentially dramatic changes in how Americans vote, with expected widespre use of vote-by-mail creating openings to cast doubt, skepticism and even false information on vember election's results.

hearing came as Big Tech faces increasing pressure to monitor content and to be transparent about accuracy of information visible to users. Twitter has begun labeling tweets based on manipulated media that are attempted to confuse and misle people, and has taken steps to prohibit paid political vertising, including by government-controlled news media entities.

Trump ministration, meanwhile, proposed this week

Of particular concern heing into vember are foreign influence operations, reliant on bogus social media accounts, aimed at swaying opinion. An investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller revealed a vast Russian effort to sow discord on internet during 2016 presidential election by playing up divisive social medias.

Facebook said that two days before 2018 elections, it dismantled more than 100 accounts linked to same operation. Between January and March of this year, company says it dismantled roughly 1.7 billion accounts.