Twitter and Facebook become targets in Trump and Biden ads

Social media has become target of a dueling attack campaign being wd online by sitting president and his election rival. y’re shooting messenger while giving it lots of money. President Donald Trump has bought hundreds of messs on Facebook to accuse its competitor, Twitter, of trying to stifle his voice and influence vember election.

Democratic challenger Joe Biden has spent thousands of dollars vertising on Facebook with a mess of his own: In dozens of s on platform, he’s asked supporters to sign a petition calling on Facebook to remove inaccurate statements, specifically those from Trump.

major social media companies are navigating a political minefield as y try to minimize domestic misinformation and rein in foreign actors from manipulating ir sites as y did in last U.S. presidential election. ir new actions — or in some cases, lack of action — have triggered explosive, partisan responses, ending ir glory days as self-described neutral platforms.

Even as two presidential campaigns dump millions of dollars every week into Facebook and Google s that boost ir exposure, both are also using online s to criticize tech platforms for ir policies. Trump is accusing Twitter and Snapchat of interfering in this year’s election. Biden has sent multiple letters to Facebook and attacked company for policies that allow politicians, Trump specifically, to freely make false claims on its site. Biden is paying Facebook handsomely to show s that accuse Facebook of posing a “threat” to democracy.

Meantime Trump is paying Facebook to run s trashing medium he uses like ne or, Twitter.“Twitter is interfering in 2020 Election by attempting to SILENCE your President,” claimed one of nearly 600 s Trump’s campaign placed on FacebookIt’s “a huge departure from 2016,” said Emerson Brooking, a fellow at Atlantic Council’s Digital Forensic Research Lab, a Washington think-tank. “If you were leing Trump or Clinton campaign, you weren’t writing letters to Facebook all day long. It wasn’t so much a central campaign issue. w it seems like it very much is.”

Americans, after all, are on high alert about platforms’ policies after discovering that Russian trolls posted divisive messs, created fake political events and even used rubles to buy Facebook s intended for U.S. audiences in 2016 election. Research alrey shows Kremlin is at it again.

Since last presidential election, Facebook and Twitter have banned voting-related misinformation and vowed to identify and shut down inauntic networks of accounts run by domestic or foreign troublemakers. Before this year’s election, Twitter banned political s altoger, a decision a company spokesman told AP it stands behind. And Facebook, along with Google, began disclosing campaign spending while banning n-Americans from buying U.S. political s.

Facebook didn’t comment for this story.But calls to deflate Big Tech’s ballooning power have only grown louder from both Democrats and Republicans, even though two parties are targeting different companies for different reasons to rally supporters.

Those politics will doubt be on full display Wednesday, when four big tech CEOs, Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Google’s Sundar Pichai and Apple’s Tim Cook, testify to a House Judiciary Committee panel as part of a congressional investigation into tech industry’s dominance.

Biden has focused on Facebook, with a #MoveFastFixIt campaign that monishes Facebook for t doing eugh to protect users from foreign meddling or being duped by falsehoods, particularly those spre by Trump about mail-in voting.His campaign just last month spent nearly $10,000 to run s scolding company on its own platform.

“We could lie to you, but we won’t,” says one of Biden’s s. “Donald Trump and his Republican allies, on or hand, spend MILLIONS on Facebook s like this one that spre dangerous misinformation about everything from how to vote to legitimacy of our democratic process.”

Despite criticizing Facebook, Biden’s campaign said it’s still purchasing millions of dollars in Facebook s because it’s one of few ways to counter Trump’s false posts — since Facebook won’t fact check him. s are also a cheap and effective way for campaigns to rally supporters who are unhappy with platforms, said Kathleen Searles, a Louisiana State University political communications professor.

“We do kw that anger can be very motivating — it motivates m to get ir name on an email list, or donate $20,” Searles said. “What better way to get people angry than a faceless platform?”While Biden has focused on Facebook, Trump has honed in on Twitter, and occasionally Snapchat, with his campaign running online s that accuse both companies of “interfering” in election.

Twitter became a Trump campaign target after company rolled out its first fact check of his inaccurate tweet about voting in late May. Twitter has since applied similar labels to five or Trump tweets, including two that called mail-in ballots “fraudulent” and predicted that “mail boxes will be robbed” if voting doesn’t take place in person.

Trump responded by signing a largely symbolic executive order challenging Section 230 of Communications Decency Act, which provides protections from lawsuits for internet companies that have served as a bedrock for unfettered speech online.“It’s preposterous that Silicon Valley, bastion of diversity and liberalism, is terrified of intellectual diversity and conservative voices,” Trump deputy national press secretary Ken Farnaso said in a statement.

Republican leers have since joined in railing against Twitter.This month, Rep. Jim Jordan, a firebrand conservative from Ohio, demanded Twitter hand over a full accounting, including emails, of how it decided to fact check president. Saying “big tech is out of control,” Republican Sen. Ted Cruz joined dozens of conservative media outlets, Trump staffers and politicians who wd a two-day campaign last month urging ir Twitter followers to ditch platform and join Parler, a social media app that does t moderate its content as closely.

Facebook could be next for a face-off with president and his allies w that company has vowed to label any posts — Trump’s included — that violate its rules against voting misinformation or hate speech. Facebook has yet to take such action, though. “Social media censorship is going to be a very potent campaign issue,” Brooking said. “And re’s going to be incentive from a number of folks running for office in 2020 to push envelope still furr, to try to invite more and more social media moderation because y see it as a potent political stunt.”

(Im Credit: AP)