Beginning Thursday, US Facebook users who post about voting may start seeing an addendum to their messages—labels directing readers to authoritative information about the upcoming presidential election. It's the social network's latest step to to combat election-related misinformation on its platform as the Nov. 3 election nears—one in which many voters may be submitting ballots by mail for the first time. Facebook began adding similar links to posts about in-person and mail-in balloting by federal politicians, including President Trump, in July. These labels will link to a new voter information hub similar to one about COVID-19 that Facebook says has been seen by billions of users around the world, the AP reports. The labels will read, "Visit the Voting Information Center for election resources and official updates."
Facebook—which continues to face widespread criticism around how it handles misinformation around elections and other matters—said it is "actively speaking with election officials about the potential of misinformation around election results as an emerging threat." The company did not give details on the potential threats, but said that a prolonged ballot process where results are not immediately clear “has the potential to be exploited in order to sow distrust in the election outcome." "One way we plan to fight this is by using the Voting Information Center and the US Elections digest in Facebook News to make sure people have easy access to the latest, authoritative information and news on and after Election Night," Facebook exec Naomi Gleit wrote in a blog post.
(More
Facebook stories.)
,
uBlock 
,
and
Ghostery 
)
