【】
Facebook took a teeny step forward on its tightrope walk between helping people vote in 2020 and not pissing off President Donald Trump.
In a livestreamed video Friday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared new policies that he claims will help people cast their ballots in the 2020 elections. This work falls to Facebook because misinformation about voting spreads on its social networks, including Instagram and WhatsApp, like wildfire. Standing for a cause like "voting" also seems like a neutral issue that would generate public goodwill — or so one would think.
Zuckerberg announced that the company would add a link to "authoritative information" on all Facebook and Instagram posts having to do with voting. That "information" will consist of a link to Facebook's new Voting Information Center. It's a portal with information about registering to vote and polling places, as well as resources from election officials.
The announcement is loaded because Trump used Facebook to spread misinformation about voting, and the company did nothing about it.
In a carefully worded statement, Zuckerberg said he wanted to give users solid information about voting, but didn't want to judge the content of posts on the topic. He explicitly specified that the policy will affect posts from politicians — presumably, including Trump.
"We are adopting a policy of attaching a link to our Voting Information Center for posts that discuss voting, including from politicians," Zuckerberg wrote. "This isn't a judgement of whether the posts themselves are accurate, but we want people to have access to authoritative information either way."
Posts on Facebook and Instagram will get the link to "get voting information."Credit: facebookIn May, Trump tweeted about the supposed dangers of absentee voting, claiming it would lead to a "rigged election."
Currently, many states are adopting or moving to broaden mail-in voting, so that people can vote without fear of contracting coronavirus. Trump said higher voter turnout favors Democratic candidates — so it makes sense that undermining absentee voting would work in the president's favor in November.
The president's unfounded absentee voting alarmism did not go unnoticed.
Twitter added a label to his tweet, which linked out to articles that showed there is no evidence that mail-in voting leads to fraud. It also flagged another Trump tweet that glorified violence against protesters.
The president railed against "censorship" and even signed an executive order pressuring Congress to revoke key legal protections for social media companies.
Twitter took at least some action. Facebook, on the other hand, left the posts up without any labels.
Despite Facebook's own policies against voter suppression, it defended the decision by describing the president's posts as "valid debate." This is itself a form of voter misinformation, since there is no factual debate about the security of absentee voting, and claiming there is confuses the issue and undermines the public's faith in the electoral process.
Facebook's moves seem to have helped it skirt the president's ire. Trump briefly ran attack ads on Facebook against Twitter and Snapchat — which announced it would no longer promote the president's channel in its Discover platform — for "censoring" him.
Trump ran no such ads against Facebook.
However, Facebook saw major backlash this week for its continued weaksauce response to Trump's many inflammatory claims about voting, protesters, immigrants, and more. Companies including Ben & Jerry's and Verizon signed on to a July ads boycott, suggested by several non-profit organizations. The NAACP pointed to the spread of misinformation and the undermining of democracy as one of the reasons for the boycott.
Tweet may have been deleted
Now, days before the July boycott is set to begin, Facebook gets to publicize small changes without fundamentally altering its business model, which in part relies on high engagement from many Trump supporters.
In addition to the links to the Voter Information Center, Facebook said it would add a label to posts that violate its policies (such as hate speech) if they're newsworthy (i.e., if they're from Trump).
An intentionally non-judgmental link to "more information" is basically the mildest form of fact-checking Facebook can do. But it's at least — ever so slightly — better than its previous policy of doing nothing.
TopicsFacebookSocial MediaDonald TrumpElectionsPolitics
相关文章
One of the most controversial power struggles in media comes to a close
One of the world's biggest media companies has been embroiled in a complex personal and professional2024-11-10- 金特羅親承將加盟河床 :從一開始我的意願就是回到那裏_消息_深圳隊_中超www.ty42.com 日期:2022-01-15 11:31:00| 評論(已有325668條評論)2024-11-10
- 南野拓實破門慶賀生日 張伯倫喜獲賽季聯賽首球_英超_比賽_進球www.ty42.com 日期:2022-01-17 03:31:00| 評論(已有326015條評論)2024-11-10
- 萊萬戴帽達成德甲300球裏程碑 力壓哈蘭德領跑射手榜_比賽_多特_拜仁www.ty42.com 日期:2022-01-16 01:01:00| 評論(已有325805條評論)2024-11-10
Fyvush Finkel, Emmy winner for 'Picket Fences,' dies at 93
NEW YORK (AP) — Actor Fyvush Finkel, the plastic-faced Emmy Award-winning character actor whos2024-11-10- 海港新賽季首要目標補強鋒線 價美物廉考驗俱樂部能力_萊科_外援_山東泰山www.ty42.com 日期:2022-01-17 11:01:00| 評論(已有326066條評論)2024-11-10
最新评论