After Election Day, we’ve come across a period of mess. To prevent social media from being flooded with non-official claims of victory and misleading information about the election, all social media companies have taken action to fight election chaos. Facebook, Twitter, and Google have been working on ways to reduce election chaos and the spread of misinformation on social media. With different preparation, people can hopefully get verified information on social media.
Check where to find the most accurate election results.
- Stop accepting ads about politics a week before Election Day.
- Activate the Voting Information Center. With Voting Information Center accessible on Facebook and Instagram feeds, Facebook provides users with the latest, most accurate, and authoritative information after the election.
- Remove contents that include misinformation. For example, posts that claim people would get infected by COVID-19 if they go voting are removed before Election Day.
- Label posts with information not yet confirmed. For example, if any candidates claim to win the election before final results are settled, Facebook will add labels to the posts and lead readers to the official, authoritative results provided.
A more detailed introduction and demo from the Facebook official
- Remove the “Recent” tab on all hashtag pages
To “reduce the real-time spread” of misinformation, Instagram has temporarily hidden the “Recent” tab on the hashtag page. Now users in the U.S. can only view “Top” posts on all hashtag pages.
- Label tweets that contain misleading information. Tweets, where candidates or parties claim victory BEFORE the election result is officially confirmed, are labeled.
- Activate the official Twitter information stream. By providing a list of trusted and authoritative sources of election results, Twitter has set up clear criteria for verifying the trustworthiness of election results shared via tweets.
- Change the retweet mechanism. To prevent bot accounts from spreading misleading information, now users have to leave their comments when retweeting. This policy will apply at least until the end of the election week.
- Provide correct U.S. election results. Google shows authoritative and real-time election results from The Associated Press (AP) on Google searching page.
- Pause ads about the election after Election Day.
Youtube
- Remove violative contents on Youtube.
- Show information panels. Once users search for election results, there will be a panel on top of searching results that links to Google U.S. election results.
Do your part to help prevent the spread of misinformation.
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