Facebook has begun labeling all posts by presidential candidates and federally elected officials that mention voting or ballots. The blanket tag, according to Axios, will appear regardless of whether the message contains misinformation.
The tag—easily identifiable with its grey “Get Voting Information” button—urges readers to click through for official details on how to vote in the 2020 US election. Facebook posts that expressly address voting by mail link directly to state-by-state instructions about registering for an absentee ballot.
Guy Rosen, vice president of integrity at Facebook, confirmed the news in a Thursday tweet, writing that “we’re rolling out labels that link to official info about the 2020 US elections … while we work to build our Voting Information Center and add labels to all posts about voting.”
(Photo via Guy Rosen/Twitter)
This comes less than a month after CEO Mark Zuckerberg promised to start labeling rule-breaking-but-newsworthy posts from politicians. So while users are welcome to continue spreading misinformation, the company will “add a prompt to tell people that the content they’re sharing may violate our policies.” Zuck’s reluctance to remove missives from President Trump containing fake news about mail-in voting, among other topics, has irked some employees.
Four years ago, Facebook was ground zero for Russian-led interference in the US presidential election. Now, the social network is launching a voting information campaign, with the goal of registering four million voters and helping them get to the polls in November. It’s also making it easier to turn off social issue, electoral, and political ads featuring the “Paid for by” disclaimer.
Twitter, meanwhile, has been adding warning labels left and right since May—slapping a number on posts made by the commander-in-chief himself—letting people know which tweets could use more rigorous fact-checking and/or incite violence.
