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https://www.rt.com/usa/498699-facebook-contingency-plan-trump-election/
Facebook’s said to be working on an election-day ‘KILL SWITCH’ in the event of a Trump defeat. But what if it’s the Dems who lose?
21 Aug, 2020 20:09
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Trump campaign Facebook ad © Reuters / Handout
Helen Buyniski is an American journalist and political commentator at RT. Follow her on Twitter @velocirapture23
Facebook employees are reportedly working on post-election contingency plans – including a political ad “kill switch” – in case President Donald Trump contests the results. But both parties have hinted they won’t accept defeat.
The social media behemoth is running “post-election scenarios” in preparation for Trump using the platform to cast doubt on the results, sources familiar with Facebook’s activities told the New York Times on Friday.
Also on rt.com If you can’t compete, cheat: Twitter’s shadow-banning of RT & other state-linked media proves the US narrative doesn’t measure up
Should Trump falsely claim he won the election, or that some outside force – from the postal service losing mail-in ballots to foreign meddling – stole it from him, Facebook, the insiders said, will intervene to save the day.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg is said to be holding “daily meetings about minimizing how the platform can be used to dispute the election” and discussing solutions that include a “kill switch” to silence political advertising after the vote. Since Facebook doesn’t fact-check political ads, the reasoning goes, they could be used to spread malignant rumors. A label explaining the vote count hasn’t been finalized, added to posts claiming victory, was another solution floated during a staff meeting earlier this month.
YouTube and Twitter are working on their own contingency plans for a disputed election, according to a passel of “disinformation and political researchers” who claimed to have advised them. All three platforms have cracked down hard on information running contrary to approved establishment narratives over the past several months, banning and suspending users for a growing list of offenses as they struggle to avoid a repeat of 2016’s surprise Trump victory. Twitter and Facebook have labeled Russian and Chinese state media with a ‘scarlet letter’ equivalent and buried their content in both search and newsfeed, essentially quarantining the state-linked outfits in line with US intelligence’s ongoing, unsubstantiated insistence that “Russian meddling” threw the last election to Trump.
Also on rt.com Facebook purges & restricts THOUSANDS of QAnon, Antifa & militia accounts, stretching definition of ‘dangerous individuals’
However, domestic “meddling” – that is, Americans discussing their own national politics – has proven tougher to suppress. Facebook banned or restricted thousands of accounts associated with the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory, antifa, or militia groups on Thursday, citing an expansion of its policy on “dangerous groups and individuals.” Twitter, too, has waged war on QAnon material, claiming it has the potential to cause harm.
Facebook had initially concentrated on controlling the information environment prior to the election, devising some 80 crisis-response scenarios it discussed with its election-integrity partner, pro-war think tank the Atlantic Council, and other government and academic figures. The scenarios reportedly included “if hackers backed by a nation-state leaked documents online, or if a nation-state unleashed a widespread disinformation campaign at the last minute to dissuade Americans from going to the polls.”
However, post-election planning has apparently become the chief order of business at the social network, where some claim Trump himself is the ultimate threat to democracy. The president has cast doubt on the legitimacy of a mail-in election, citing massive potential for fraud and threatening to withhold needed funding from the Post Office.
Social media has to “potentially treat the president as a bad actor” capable of undermining the vote, lamented Alex Stamos, former Facebook chief security officer and director of the Stanford Internet Observatory. “We don’t have experience with that in the United States.”
Ironically, Stamos’s colleague at the Observatory, Renee DiResta, helped run internet consultancy New Knowledge’s infamous faux-Russian bot campaign to delegitimize Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore during a 2017 special election – a fraudulent effort that got her partner, Jonathon Morgan, kicked off Facebook for good.
Also on rt.com Liberal ‘ethics’ org seeks to sue Trump’s postmaster general for ‘undermining’ vote-by-mail plans
While establishment fears about delegitimizing the vote have congealed around Trump, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton – along with much of her party – has refused for four years to accept defeat in the 2016 presidential race. Clinton published an entire book titled ‘What Happened’ that blamed her loss on everyone from WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange to the “Bernie Bros” to the Russian government, while leading Democrats still insist – Mueller report notwithstanding – that the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to win.
Ominously, there doesn’t seem to be a contingency plan in place for post-election disinformation coming from the Democratic camp. Earlier this month, Clinton resumed her Russiagate griping, warning Democrats they’d better vote unless they wanted a “foreign adversary” to pick the winner on November 3. In June, Democratic challenger Joe Biden said his “single greatest concern” was that “this president is going to try to steal this election.” With Silicon Valley and much of the media firmly in his corner, “election integrity” is looking more and more like a one-way street.
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https://www.rt.com/usa/499795-facebook-election-ad-ban-unrest/
Facebook to BAN new pre-election political ads & label early victory claims in order to ‘limit potential for civil unrest’
3 Sep, 2020 16:07
Get short URL
Zuckerberg testifying to Congress. FILE PHOTO © Reuters / Pool New
Facebook has promised to thwart efforts to disrupt the US presidential elections, by prohibiting new political ads a week before the vote and labeling premature victory claims in the hope of stopping unrest before it starts.
The social media behemoth is teaming up with Reuters to flag premature claims of victory and redirect voters to “authoritative information about election results,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a post on Thursday outlining what are supposed to be the platform’s last election-related rule changes.
Also on rt.com Zuckerberg to donate $300 million to ensure Covid-safe US elections as Facebook hunts for Russian disinformation
The CEO added that “authoritative information from [Facebook’s] Voting Information Center will be situated at the top of the Facebook and Instagram interface almost every day until the election,” including how-to videos on voting by mail and registration deadlines. Instagram is also owned by Facebook.
New “political and issue ads” will be banned in the week before Election Day, though previously existing ads will continue to run. “Misinformation about voting” will be wiped out with the help of state election authorities, Zuckerberg promised, adding that due to the expansion of early voting, those authorities will be getting involved in policing election-related content earlier than usual.
Facebook Messenger is also cracking down on mass forwarding, supposedly in an effort to “reduce the risk of misinformation and harmful content going viral.” The CEO praised similar efforts by WhatsApp (owned by Facebook), which he claimed successfully prevented misinformation from spreading during “sensitive periods” in “many countries” - though no further details were provided.
Threats related to Covid-19 meant to “discourage voting” will no longer be allowed, the post continued, noting that “posts with claims that people will get Covid-19 if they take part in voting” will be deleted. Ironically, this was one of the rationales for expanding mail-in voting across the US in the first place.
Zuckerberg made sure to remind Facebook users about the threat of “coordinated online efforts by foreign governments and individuals to interfere in our elections,” claiming that his platform had just this week removed 13 accounts and two pages for “trying to mislead Americans and amplify division.” While he acknowledged that much of the election meddling the platform has seen in recent months has been coming from inside the US, he attempted to pin the responsibility on “militias [and] conspiracy networks like QAnon,” promising to further crack down on such groups – thousands of whom saw their accounts banned or restricted earlier this month.
Also on rt.com Facebook’s said to be working on an election-day ‘KILL SWITCH’ in the event of a Trump defeat. But what if it’s the Dems who lose?
While Zuckerberg didn’t refer to the rumored “kill switch” Facebook was said to be working on last week, which would shut down all political advertising after the vote in an effort to prevent civil unrest stemming from incomplete or inaccurate election results, the new rules announced Thursday were framed as the final policy changes before Americans go to the polls (or to their local mailbox) on Election Day.
Facebook has reportedly been running “post-election scenarios” in an effort to preempt and crush civil unrest that might result from what is expected to be a hotly contested vote. While the platform’s efforts are rumored to be focused on preventing President Donald Trump from falsely claiming the election was stolen from him, a Democratic victory is by no means in the bag, as polling indicates the race remains close.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
Facebook’s said to be working on an election-day ‘KILL SWITCH’ in the event of a Trump defeat. But what if it’s the Dems who lose?
21 Aug, 2020 20:09
Get short URL
Trump campaign Facebook ad © Reuters / Handout
- 252
Helen Buyniski is an American journalist and political commentator at RT. Follow her on Twitter @velocirapture23
Facebook employees are reportedly working on post-election contingency plans – including a political ad “kill switch” – in case President Donald Trump contests the results. But both parties have hinted they won’t accept defeat.
The social media behemoth is running “post-election scenarios” in preparation for Trump using the platform to cast doubt on the results, sources familiar with Facebook’s activities told the New York Times on Friday.
Also on rt.com If you can’t compete, cheat: Twitter’s shadow-banning of RT & other state-linked media proves the US narrative doesn’t measure up
Should Trump falsely claim he won the election, or that some outside force – from the postal service losing mail-in ballots to foreign meddling – stole it from him, Facebook, the insiders said, will intervene to save the day.
CEO Mark Zuckerberg is said to be holding “daily meetings about minimizing how the platform can be used to dispute the election” and discussing solutions that include a “kill switch” to silence political advertising after the vote. Since Facebook doesn’t fact-check political ads, the reasoning goes, they could be used to spread malignant rumors. A label explaining the vote count hasn’t been finalized, added to posts claiming victory, was another solution floated during a staff meeting earlier this month.
YouTube and Twitter are working on their own contingency plans for a disputed election, according to a passel of “disinformation and political researchers” who claimed to have advised them. All three platforms have cracked down hard on information running contrary to approved establishment narratives over the past several months, banning and suspending users for a growing list of offenses as they struggle to avoid a repeat of 2016’s surprise Trump victory. Twitter and Facebook have labeled Russian and Chinese state media with a ‘scarlet letter’ equivalent and buried their content in both search and newsfeed, essentially quarantining the state-linked outfits in line with US intelligence’s ongoing, unsubstantiated insistence that “Russian meddling” threw the last election to Trump.
Also on rt.com Facebook purges & restricts THOUSANDS of QAnon, Antifa & militia accounts, stretching definition of ‘dangerous individuals’
However, domestic “meddling” – that is, Americans discussing their own national politics – has proven tougher to suppress. Facebook banned or restricted thousands of accounts associated with the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy theory, antifa, or militia groups on Thursday, citing an expansion of its policy on “dangerous groups and individuals.” Twitter, too, has waged war on QAnon material, claiming it has the potential to cause harm.
Facebook had initially concentrated on controlling the information environment prior to the election, devising some 80 crisis-response scenarios it discussed with its election-integrity partner, pro-war think tank the Atlantic Council, and other government and academic figures. The scenarios reportedly included “if hackers backed by a nation-state leaked documents online, or if a nation-state unleashed a widespread disinformation campaign at the last minute to dissuade Americans from going to the polls.”
However, post-election planning has apparently become the chief order of business at the social network, where some claim Trump himself is the ultimate threat to democracy. The president has cast doubt on the legitimacy of a mail-in election, citing massive potential for fraud and threatening to withhold needed funding from the Post Office.
Social media has to “potentially treat the president as a bad actor” capable of undermining the vote, lamented Alex Stamos, former Facebook chief security officer and director of the Stanford Internet Observatory. “We don’t have experience with that in the United States.”
Ironically, Stamos’s colleague at the Observatory, Renee DiResta, helped run internet consultancy New Knowledge’s infamous faux-Russian bot campaign to delegitimize Alabama Senate candidate Roy Moore during a 2017 special election – a fraudulent effort that got her partner, Jonathon Morgan, kicked off Facebook for good.
Also on rt.com Liberal ‘ethics’ org seeks to sue Trump’s postmaster general for ‘undermining’ vote-by-mail plans
While establishment fears about delegitimizing the vote have congealed around Trump, Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton – along with much of her party – has refused for four years to accept defeat in the 2016 presidential race. Clinton published an entire book titled ‘What Happened’ that blamed her loss on everyone from WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange to the “Bernie Bros” to the Russian government, while leading Democrats still insist – Mueller report notwithstanding – that the Trump campaign colluded with Moscow to win.
Ominously, there doesn’t seem to be a contingency plan in place for post-election disinformation coming from the Democratic camp. Earlier this month, Clinton resumed her Russiagate griping, warning Democrats they’d better vote unless they wanted a “foreign adversary” to pick the winner on November 3. In June, Democratic challenger Joe Biden said his “single greatest concern” was that “this president is going to try to steal this election.” With Silicon Valley and much of the media firmly in his corner, “election integrity” is looking more and more like a one-way street.
If you like this story, share it with a friend!
- 252
https://www.rt.com/usa/499795-facebook-election-ad-ban-unrest/
Facebook to BAN new pre-election political ads & label early victory claims in order to ‘limit potential for civil unrest’
3 Sep, 2020 16:07
Get short URL
Zuckerberg testifying to Congress. FILE PHOTO © Reuters / Pool New
- 17
Facebook has promised to thwart efforts to disrupt the US presidential elections, by prohibiting new political ads a week before the vote and labeling premature victory claims in the hope of stopping unrest before it starts.
The social media behemoth is teaming up with Reuters to flag premature claims of victory and redirect voters to “authoritative information about election results,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a post on Thursday outlining what are supposed to be the platform’s last election-related rule changes.
Also on rt.com Zuckerberg to donate $300 million to ensure Covid-safe US elections as Facebook hunts for Russian disinformation
The CEO added that “authoritative information from [Facebook’s] Voting Information Center will be situated at the top of the Facebook and Instagram interface almost every day until the election,” including how-to videos on voting by mail and registration deadlines. Instagram is also owned by Facebook.
New “political and issue ads” will be banned in the week before Election Day, though previously existing ads will continue to run. “Misinformation about voting” will be wiped out with the help of state election authorities, Zuckerberg promised, adding that due to the expansion of early voting, those authorities will be getting involved in policing election-related content earlier than usual.
Facebook Messenger is also cracking down on mass forwarding, supposedly in an effort to “reduce the risk of misinformation and harmful content going viral.” The CEO praised similar efforts by WhatsApp (owned by Facebook), which he claimed successfully prevented misinformation from spreading during “sensitive periods” in “many countries” - though no further details were provided.
Threats related to Covid-19 meant to “discourage voting” will no longer be allowed, the post continued, noting that “posts with claims that people will get Covid-19 if they take part in voting” will be deleted. Ironically, this was one of the rationales for expanding mail-in voting across the US in the first place.
Zuckerberg made sure to remind Facebook users about the threat of “coordinated online efforts by foreign governments and individuals to interfere in our elections,” claiming that his platform had just this week removed 13 accounts and two pages for “trying to mislead Americans and amplify division.” While he acknowledged that much of the election meddling the platform has seen in recent months has been coming from inside the US, he attempted to pin the responsibility on “militias [and] conspiracy networks like QAnon,” promising to further crack down on such groups – thousands of whom saw their accounts banned or restricted earlier this month.
Also on rt.com Facebook’s said to be working on an election-day ‘KILL SWITCH’ in the event of a Trump defeat. But what if it’s the Dems who lose?
While Zuckerberg didn’t refer to the rumored “kill switch” Facebook was said to be working on last week, which would shut down all political advertising after the vote in an effort to prevent civil unrest stemming from incomplete or inaccurate election results, the new rules announced Thursday were framed as the final policy changes before Americans go to the polls (or to their local mailbox) on Election Day.
Facebook has reportedly been running “post-election scenarios” in an effort to preempt and crush civil unrest that might result from what is expected to be a hotly contested vote. While the platform’s efforts are rumored to be focused on preventing President Donald Trump from falsely claiming the election was stolen from him, a Democratic victory is by no means in the bag, as polling indicates the race remains close.
Think your friends would be interested? Share this story!
