[ad_1] The report notes that Eric Covey, chief of staff for Vermont’s secretary of state, reached out to Facebook asking why CrowdTangle couldn’t monitor public posts from individual users, since they are the main source of voter misinformation. Khalid Pagan, a Facebook government and politics outreach manager, responded that such monitoring wasn’t possible because of […]
Category: Election 2020
Instagram will make suspicious accounts verify their identities
[ad_1] Instagram is taking new steps to root out bots and other accounts trying to manipulate its platform. The company says it will start asking some users to verify their identities if it suspects “potential inauthentic behavior.” Instagram stresses that the new policy won’t affect most users, but that it will target accounts that seem […]
Facebook will link all 2020 US election posts to its voter hub
[ad_1] When it comes to potential cases of voter suppression, every post that mentions the 2020 election will include a link to the Voter Information Center. Facebook also plans to flag posts made by politicians in this same way. “This isn’t a judgment of whether the posts themselves are accurate,” said Zuckerberg. “But we want […]
Twitter fact checks Trump’s false tweets about election fraud
[ad_1] Twitter Twitter has appended a link urging users to “get the facts” about mail-in ballots. Clicking through, Twitter further notes that fact checkers say there is no evidence to support these claims and that voting by mail is already used in a number of states. The company also links to stories from CNN, the […]
Twitter suspends 70 accounts posting pro-Bloomberg content
[ad_1] Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign has been much shorter than his competitors and, so far, much louder. With a huge budget, it’s paid for posts by social media influencers as well as standard advertisements. However, the LA Times reports that on Friday, Twitter suspended some 70-odd accounts for breaking its rules against “against platform manipulation […]
Facebook plans to clarify when pro-Bloomberg posts come from staffers
[ad_1] At the moment, Facebook doesn’t have a way to show when political posts come from paid campaigners, and CNBC’s source didn’t share any proposed solutions. “We think it’s important that political campaigns have the guidance and tools to be transparent,” a Facebook spokesperson told CNBC. “That’s why we recommend campaign employees make the relationship […]
Recommended Reading: The lasting effect of the Iowa Caucuses
[ad_1] Iowa might have screwed up the whole nomination processNate Silver,FiveThirtyEight By now you probably know the story. The Iowa Democratic Party decided to use an app to report results from its caucuses this week. These events were the first primary-type votes cast in the 2020 Democratic presidential race, and would’ve set the tone for […]
Cloudflare is providing free anti-DDoS services to US political campaigns
[ad_1] “This is our way of providing best practices and no-brainer solutions to not only large campaigns, but also smaller, but equally important campaigns that may have limited resources,” said Cloudflare CEO Matthew Prince. To provide the service, Cloudflare is working with Defending Digital Campaigns (DDC), a non-partisan nonprofit organization that connects US election candidates […]
Beto O’Rourke wants to hold internet companies liable for hate speech
[ad_1] O’Rourke’s proposals would also demand that bigger internet platforms have terms of service banning “hateful activities” that foster violence, harassment, threats and defamation based on a host of cultural and physical traits, including skin color, religion, gender identity and immigration status. Companies would have to implement systems that identify and clamp down on this […]
Kamala Harris sees Facebook as a ‘utility’ that might need breaking up
[ad_1] The observations come days after Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes used an op-ed to ask the FTC to break up Facebook. Candidates beyond Harris have had varying stances. Sen. Amy Klobuchar has offered increased antitrust oversight without specifically calling for a Facebook split, while Sen. Cory Booker said a President shouldn’t wield “personal beliefs” and […]