Facebook is introducing new policies aimed at further protecting the 2020 U.S. presidential election from interference, with measures particularly targeted at political ads and calls for “poll watching.”
The social network said it plans to clamp down further on posts aimed at intimidating voters. President Trump and others have urged their supporters to go to polling places on Election Day to watch for signs of fraudulent voting—an action that many fear will lead to acts of intimidation and violence against would-be voters.
Facebook plans to remove any posts that include militarized language in an attempt to encourage poll watchers. Facebook says it will also remove posts that don’t use militarized language but that encourage poll watching as a way of suppressing voting. The policy will not apply to posts retroactively.
“As we head into the final days of this election, we know that we will see spikes in potentially violating content that may try to intimidate voters, or interfere with and suppress the vote,” said Monika Bickert, Facebook’s vice president of content policy. “That’s why we’ve invested so heavily in these areas.”
Facebook also will temporarily stop running all political ads after the polls close on Nov. 3, in addition to banning new political ads one week prior to the election. The company did not specify when it will resume allowing such, only saying it will notify advertisers when it does.
The news comes as Facebook tries to show users, politicians, and the public that it’s doing more to protect the 2020 election, after having allowed its platform to be manipulated in foreign attempts to influence the election in 2016. Meanwhile, posts that spread conspiracy theories and misinformation and attempted voter suppression have continued to plague the service in recent weeks—sometimes being amplified and disseminated by politicians with large followings.
Facebook said that between March and September it labeled more than 150 million posts for misinformation about the election, and added that it removed more than 120,000 posts for violating its voter interference policies on Facebook and Instagram. Facebook also said it removed 30 networks of bad actors on its services and had rejected ad submissions that were expected to run about 2.2 million times in the U.S.
The company also provided more information on how it plans to handle posts about the election results. Facebook said that after polls close, it plans to run a notification at the top of Facebook and Instagram directing users to its voter notification center, a tab with authoritative information about the vote-counting process. It will also direct users to that center via labels it plans to add to candidates’ posts.
If a candidate declares victory prematurely, Facebook said it will include an additional note in the labels reminding users that no winner has yet been determined. When a winner is declared by major media outlets, Facebook plans to display that candidate’s name in a notification at the top of Facebook and Instagram, even if the winner’s opponent contests the win. Facebook also plans to include the winner’s name within candidates’ posts.
“This is part of a multiyear marathon journey we’ve been on to understand risks across elections,” said Guy Rosen, Facebook’s vice president of integrity. “It’s important for us to be ready.”
