Facebook bans ads claiming widespread voting fraud ahead of US Presidential elections

Facebook Inc., on September 30, banned all the advertisements that claim widespread voting fraud, which denounce or attack any method of voting or spread cynicism towards the upcoming elections. The new rules would be applicable to all the ads on its flagship website as well as it’s subsidiary Instagram. California based social media company had previously taken similar steps including a prohibition on those ads which falsely predict election results.

Trump campaign's ad removed

In addition to that, Facebook also removed the Trump campaign ads suggesting that immigrants could be a significant source of coronavirus infections. As per the company's blog, the ban was implemented because the ads were spreading "hate speech" and  would come into effect from September 30 

The matter caught attention after US President Donald Trump, speaking during Presidential debate with his electoral opponent Joe Biden, repeated his baseless claim that the November 3 presidential elections would be "rigged".  Facebook had often attracted flak for spreading misinformation and rumours.  Recently, two influential Democrats on Capitol Hill have called on the social network to take more stringent measures against misinformation, suppression of voting rights and incitement to violence ahead of the US elections.

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As per reports, U.S. Representatives Pramila Jayapal and David Cicilline sent a letter to Facebook and accused the California-based company of being unsuccessful in enforcing its own rules and regulations around the false information allowed on the platform regarding the November presidential elections. 

In the same letter, the two Democrats even accused the company of not doing enough to check on the right-wing militias and other white supremacist groups from using Facebook for organising potentially violent events. US Congress has comparatively has only slightly increased the oversight of social media companies but the letter by the Democrats amounts to public mention of the issue.

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