It seems like election years pretty much always tend to be rather rough for Facebook, and a big part of the reason why that is the case has to do with the fact that the social media platform has in many ways become a central forum on which discussions occur. Mark Zuckerberg’s refusal to delete posts that were inciting violence has caused the company to come under a lot of fire, but at the end of the day Facebook needs to be able to ride this election out without anything scandalous happening because of the fact that the company might not be able to survive another Cambridge Analytica type situation.
In light of this situation as well as ostensibly out of a desire to ensure that the country it is based in does not end up seeing an improper election, Facebook has opted to ban all ads that might be spreading misinformation about voter fraud. Talking about voter fraud, something is highly uncommon and extremely difficult to do in the US, as if it is something that is very widespread and is going to happen in this election is something that politicians are doing in order to cast doubts on the legitimacy of the election, something that could potentially cause a vast array of problems for the nation.
Since even the President of the US, who seems quite desperate to be reelected in spite of the fact that he has completely mismanaged one of the biggest global pandemics in history, is trying to cast aspersions on the election so that he can challenge the results if he loses, it is understandable that Facebook would want to ban such ads. Facebook will also ban all political ads in the week of the election and will also clearly mark posts that appear to be prematurely celebrating any kind of victory.
Image credit: Darren Abate/Invision/AP
Read next: Digital Privacy Initiatives Lead to Facebook Ending 28 Day Ad Attribution Windows
In light of this situation as well as ostensibly out of a desire to ensure that the country it is based in does not end up seeing an improper election, Facebook has opted to ban all ads that might be spreading misinformation about voter fraud. Talking about voter fraud, something is highly uncommon and extremely difficult to do in the US, as if it is something that is very widespread and is going to happen in this election is something that politicians are doing in order to cast doubts on the legitimacy of the election, something that could potentially cause a vast array of problems for the nation.
Since even the President of the US, who seems quite desperate to be reelected in spite of the fact that he has completely mismanaged one of the biggest global pandemics in history, is trying to cast aspersions on the election so that he can challenge the results if he loses, it is understandable that Facebook would want to ban such ads. Facebook will also ban all political ads in the week of the election and will also clearly mark posts that appear to be prematurely celebrating any kind of victory.
Image credit: Darren Abate/Invision/AP
Read next: Digital Privacy Initiatives Lead to Facebook Ending 28 Day Ad Attribution Windows
