With the US election right around the corner, social media platforms such as Facebook as well as Instagram are starting to feel the pressure because of the fact that this is the sort of thing that could potentially end up harkening back to the dark days in 2016 when the Cambridge Analytica scandal came to light. One aspect of the social media platforms that could potentially negatively impact the election has to do with the spread of misinformation, and one way in which misinformation ends up being spread is through the use of certain hashtags.
Instagram is trying to deal with this potential threat by temporarily removing the recent tab for hashtag listings. This is a tab that people can use to see which hashtags have recently started to become more relevant based on a wide range of factors, and while it can usually be useful from a digital marketing as well as general usage standpoint, with an election coming it could become a place where all kinds of fake news and false information could be shared and if too many people take it seriously then it could spread like wildfire and compromise the overall democratic process.
With all of that having been said and out of the way, it is important to note that a lot more steps need to be taken by Instagram as well as Facebook in order to do their part in ensuring a free and fair election. Facebook’s supposed ban on new election ads during the final week of the election has ended up having a lot of loopholes that many have already exploited and since Facebook isn’t really doing much about this sort of thing it has made certain people concerned that come election day a lot of things would end up going horribly wrong.
Instagram is trying to deal with this potential threat by temporarily removing the recent tab for hashtag listings. This is a tab that people can use to see which hashtags have recently started to become more relevant based on a wide range of factors, and while it can usually be useful from a digital marketing as well as general usage standpoint, with an election coming it could become a place where all kinds of fake news and false information could be shared and if too many people take it seriously then it could spread like wildfire and compromise the overall democratic process.
With all of that having been said and out of the way, it is important to note that a lot more steps need to be taken by Instagram as well as Facebook in order to do their part in ensuring a free and fair election. Facebook’s supposed ban on new election ads during the final week of the election has ended up having a lot of loopholes that many have already exploited and since Facebook isn’t really doing much about this sort of thing it has made certain people concerned that come election day a lot of things would end up going horribly wrong.
Photo: Esra Hacioglu / Anadolu Agency / Getty Images
