Name: Why Facebook and Twitter won’t fact-check Trump’s latest false claims about voting
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Why Facebook and Twitter won’t fact-check Trump’s latest false claims about voting

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Trump’s claims may be dangerous to US election integrity, but the companies say they don’t violate platform policies.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Twitter and Facebook are not fact-checking factually unsupported claims about mail-in voting in the 2020 election posted by President Trump on both platforms Wednesday. The inaction has angered some critics, who say these companies allow the spread of dangerous misinformation to go unchecked online, harming the integrity of the election as a whole.made the completely unsubstantiated assertion that universal vote-by-mail, a practice in which states automatically mail a ballot to all registered voters, will lead to the most “inaccurate” and “fraudulent” election in history, and then went on to suggest delaying the election “until people can properly, securely, and safely vote.”With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE &amp; FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump)and quickly shut down Trump’s suggestion that the US should delay the election, something the president would need the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives’ approval for. It would be if he tried to delay the election using his own authority.Meanwhile, as my Vox colleague , there is no substantial evidence that voting by mail will lead to inaccurate or fraudulent results. In fact, Oregon has only out of 100 million mail-in ballots in the past two decades. Trump has nevertheless of of mail-in voting. The president’s latest comments are part of a larger pattern of him attacking the integrity of the 2020 election by making untrue statements on the matter.So why aren’t Facebook and Twitter doing anything about the misinformation in Trump’s latest post?A spokesperson for Facebook told Recode that the company won’t take action because of its long-standing policy of not fact-checking politicians. (The company did place a link to voter registration information underneath Trump’s post, something it does for all posts about voting in the election.) The hands-off policy toward moderating politicians is in line with CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s philosophy of making Facebook an open platform for discussion and not being an “arbiter of truth” on political matters. This is something civil rights organizations, , and have increasingly decried.Twitter, however, does reserve the right to fact-check politicians under its misinformation policies. In May, the company over a pair of Trump posts falsely claiming that mail-in voting in California would lead to fraud. When Recode asked Twitter why the company fact-checked Trump on his earlier post containing false claims about mail-in voting but failed to do so this time around, a spokesperson for the company told Recode that, under the , Twitter does not take down “broad, non-specific statements” about the integrity of elections or civic processes.Social media companies’ inaction on the posts was swiftly met by resistance from civil liberties groups such as Color of Change and the ..: Trump’s latest tweet should be removed. He needs to be removed from your platform. Elections in many states will rely on the very mail-in ballots he’s falsely tweeting about &amp; his ability to spread mass voter misinformation here only aids his plans of being re-elected— ColorOfChange (@ColorOfChange)Similarly, Jesse Lehrich, the co-founder of the nonprofit Accountable Tech, which is pushing Facebook to tighten its rules on harmful speech, warned that by doing nothing social media companies could exacerbate the problem of misinformation online. “Platforms should immediately remove — or clearly label and limit the reach of — this morning’s post and implement election misinformation policies that are responsive to the threats we face,” Lehrich said in a statement.It’s understandable why tech companies like Facebook and Twitter don’t want to be seen as overly meddling in political issues, as this could invite complaints that they’re favoring one side over the other. In a on Wednesday, Republicans hammered Zuckerberg as well as Google CEO Sundar Pichai for alleged “anti-conservative bias.” To support these accusations, the lawmakers offered shaky evidence, including the removal of harmful conspiracy theories related to the coronavirus.Trump’s recent statements also come at a time when his administration is facing accusations of hindering the United States Postal Service. While the USPS has long been struggling, , it’s faced new reports of financial strain under a new, Trump-appointed postmaster general, Louis DeJoy. Under DeJoy’s leadership, the USPS has reportedly been planning to and to save money.One thing that his latest posts made clear is that Trump is escalating his attacks on the legitimacy of the US election process via social media — which, if it translates to real-world action, could send the country into what many have argued is dangerous and potentially constitutional-crisis territory. The question for Facebook and Twitter is to what extent they will continue to be hands-off.Millions turn to Vox to understand what’s happening in the news. Our mission has never been more vital than it is in this moment: to empower through understanding. Financial contributions from our readers are a critical part of supporting our resource-intensive work and help us keep our journalism free for all.

Trump’s claims may be dangerous to US election integrity, but the companies say they don’t violate platform policies.Uncovering and explaining how our digital world is changing — and changing us.Twitter and Facebook are not fact-checking factually unsupported claims about mail-in voting in the 2020 election posted by President Trump on both platforms Wednesday. The inaction has angered some critics, who say these companies allow the spread of dangerous misinformation to go unchecked online, harming the integrity of the election as a whole.made the completely unsubstantiated assertion that...

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Shirin Ghaffary is a reporter for Recode. Prior to that, she worked for BuzzFeed News and Elementum, an enterprise software startup, and interned for the Wall Street Journal and TechCrunch. Originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, Shirin was raised in Silicon Valley next door to Apple headquarters, and attended UC Berkeley where she was executive news editor of the Daily Californian, the university paper.

https://www.vox.com/authors/shirin-ghaffary

Shirin Ghaffary

Vox is a liberal-leaning American news and opinion website owned by Vox Media. The website was founded in April 2014 by Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias, and Melissa Bell, and is noted for its concept of explanatory journalism. Vox's media presence also includes a YouTube channel, several podcasts, and a show presented on Netflix.

Why Facebook and Twitter won’t fact-check Trump’s latest false claims about voting

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