Facebook will take aggressive measures if US election descends into civic unrest: Report

Facebook’s head of global affairs, Nick Clegg, reportedly said that the company will take aggressive measures in a bid to stop circulations of content if the upcoming US presidential election descends into chaos or violent civic unrest. According to Financial Times, Facebook’s executive said that the company had drawn up plans for how to handle a range of outcomes, including widespread civic unrest or ‘political dilemmas’ of having in-person votes counted more rapidly than mail-in ballots. 

The social media giant has been repeatedly accused of filtering out posts or simply not filtering content enough. It has been accused of moulding narratives that influence elections in any major country. However, Facebook has now decided to assess its role in the upcoming US elections.

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Zuckerberg ‘worried’ about ‘risk of civil unrest’ 

Earlier this month, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg had warned that there could be an increased risk of civil unrest across the country, citing the polarisation in the United States, especially at a time when face masks have also been politicised. Zuckerberg said that he is ‘worried’ that with a nation that is ‘so divided’ and with election results potentially taking days or even weeks to be finalised, there could be an increased risk of civil unrest across the US. 

Facebook announced additional steps to encourage voting, connect people with authoritative information, and fight misinformation. Zuckerberg said the changes reflect what they have learned from their elections work over the past four years and the conversations they have had with voting rights experts and our civil rights auditors.

The social media platform had announced that a week before the November 3 election, the company would stop accepting new political ads. Zuckerberg said that there may not be enough time to contest new claims in the final days of elections, prompting the social media to decline new political or issue ad requests. Although, he also highlighted that advertisers will be able to continue running ads they started it before the final week and will also be able to adjust the targeting for those ads. 

(Image: AP)

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