Facebook labeling Trump, Biden posts on voting

Facebook has started labeling all posts about voting by federal elected officials and candidates in the U.S.

This week, the labels appeared on posts by President Donald Trump and by Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, among others.

The labels simply say "get official voting info" and direct people to a hub with information from authoritative election sources such as state and local officials.

But despite the tags' intention, to give people unbiased information about when and how to vote, they have come off as confusing to some and even inadvertently appearing to endorse the candidates' words, even if they are misleading or false.

Trump's Tuesday morning Facebook post said "Mail-In Voting, unless changed by the courts, will lead to the most CORRUPT ELECTION in our Nation's History! #RIGGEDELECTION."

Facebook's label, placed under the post, says "Get official voting info on how to vote in the 2020 US Election at usa.gov" and directs people to the government website's section on absentee and early voting and voting amid the pandemic.

Biden, meanwhile, had at least two Facebook posts labeled in 24 hours _ one saying he's "putting the Kremlin and other foreign governments on notice" about interfering in the U.S. elections and another asking for donations, and saying "it may be hard to believe, but we have just over 100 days until Election Day."

In announcing the rollout of the labels last week, Facebook said they are not a judgment "of whether the posts themselves are accurate, but we want people to have access to authoritative information either way."