Facebook is preparing to adjust its news feed if unrest breaks out over next week's presidential election in the United States. The interventions must ensure that posts that stir up unrest are no longer distributed.
This is a set of measures that Facebook previously implemented in Myanmar, among others, writes The Wall Street Journal. The intention is that Facebook will not play a role in this way in the distribution of posts that incite riots. The measures could cause tens of millions of Americans to see a different news feed after logging in, the paper said.
The algorithm applies a "lower" limit for what the software sees as dangerous posts about elections in risk countries, the newspaper reports. This makes it possible to limit more posts in reach more quickly so as not to further stir up unrest in a country. In September, Facebook already announced that it would only allow political ads of the winner of the election when the official result of the election was shared by the Reuters news agency and the National Election Pool (NEP), a collective of American news media.
Facebook, like other tech companies, has been preparing for the elections for some time with the aim of not being accused of interference this time. In the US election four years ago, many critics said that Facebook had played a role in the spread of fake news and the company was already promising improvement.
Earlier this month, Facebook already deleted a post by President Donald Trump in which he downplayed the corona virus. He compared the virus to a flu and said the country has learned to live with the virus. Facebook took Trump's message very seriously. "We are removing false information about the seriousness of Covid-19 and have now removed this message," Andy Stone, Facebook policy officer, told BBC News. Twitter then also decided to add a disclaimer to its message.
This is a set of measures that Facebook previously implemented in Myanmar, among others, writes The Wall Street Journal. The intention is that Facebook will not play a role in this way in the distribution of posts that incite riots. The measures could cause tens of millions of Americans to see a different news feed after logging in, the paper said.
The algorithm applies a "lower" limit for what the software sees as dangerous posts about elections in risk countries, the newspaper reports. This makes it possible to limit more posts in reach more quickly so as not to further stir up unrest in a country. In September, Facebook already announced that it would only allow political ads of the winner of the election when the official result of the election was shared by the Reuters news agency and the National Election Pool (NEP), a collective of American news media.
Facebook, like other tech companies, has been preparing for the elections for some time with the aim of not being accused of interference this time. In the US election four years ago, many critics said that Facebook had played a role in the spread of fake news and the company was already promising improvement.
Earlier this month, Facebook already deleted a post by President Donald Trump in which he downplayed the corona virus. He compared the virus to a flu and said the country has learned to live with the virus. Facebook took Trump's message very seriously. "We are removing false information about the seriousness of Covid-19 and have now removed this message," Andy Stone, Facebook policy officer, told BBC News. Twitter then also decided to add a disclaimer to its message.
