Not enough... Bans new political ads

Facebook bans new political ads in the week before Election Day

The move, aimed at combating misinformation, comes amid Trump's warnings that the vote will be "rigged.

By STEVEN OVERLY

Facebook will not allow new political ads in the week before the U.S. presidential election, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said Thursday, warning that confusion and deliberate misinformation about the outcome are more likely than usual because of the coronavirus pandemic and deep political divisions.

The decision is among the boldest steps Facebook has taken to curtail political speech on its sprawling platform and comes as part of a broader effort to tamp down on deceitful content ahead of the November vote — a contest that President Donald Trump has alleged, without evidence, will be "the most rigged election in history.”

Critics have pressed the company to take stronger action against misinformation and voter suppression, particularly as more states turn to wider use of mail-in voting and the likelihood that the final results could be delayed for days or weeks beyond Nov. 3.

"This election is not going to be business as usual," Zuckerberg wrote in a post Thursday.

Facebook will now ban new political and issue-based ads from being distributed on the platform in the week before the election, although existing ads will be allowed to continue to run. The Trump and Biden campaigns have shelled out tens of millions of dollars to advertise on the network, which has the broadest reach of any social media platform in the U.S.

The ban is a departure for Facebook and for Zuckerberg, who has generally opposed restricting political speech and pointedly refused a year ago to go along with Twitter's ban on all political ads. He has argued in the past that the company should not be the arbiter of truth or determine what kind of political speech users can share and see.

"It's important that campaigns can run get out the vote campaigns, and I generally believe the best antidote to bad speech is more speech, but in the final days of an election there may not be enough time to contest new claims," Zuckerberg wrote.

The company will also expand its efforts to crack down on voter suppression efforts, removing posts that not only explicitly spread lies about voting but also those that imply falsehoods as well. Facebook previously announced a partnership with state election officials to remove voting misinformation in the days before the election, but the company will begin those efforts Thursday instead.

And Facebook will limit the number of people whom users can forward messages to through Facebook Messenger in a bid to halt misinformation from going viral.

Zuckerberg cautioned that a "very heated period" could follow the election as ballots are being counted and accusations of misconduct are leveled in an effort to undermine the outcome. "It's important that we prepare for this possibility in advance and understand that there could be a period of intense claims and counter-claims as the final results are counted," he said.

The Voter Information Center that Facebook debuted last month as a one-stop location for election-related information will contain results and inform people that delays are to be expected, he said. Facebook will also append informational labels to posts that question the legitimacy of the election or certain voting methods, as the company has already begun doing on posts that mention voting.

Facebook has revealed efforts to thwart election-related misinformation in dribs and drabs in recent years, but the policy changes outlined Thursday are expected to be the last before the Nov. 3 election, Zuckerberg said.

"We'll enforce the policies I outlined above as well as all our existing policies around voter suppression and voting misinformation, but to ensure there are clear and consistent rules, we are not planning to make further changes to our election-related policies between now and the official declaration of the result, Zuckerberg wrote.