In a bold and daring display of courage, Facebook announced Wednesday that it will stop running political ads — for an undefined amount of time — after polls close in the U.S. on Nov. 3. That's right, when it comes to election-related misinformation on the largest social media platform in the world, Facebook isn't waiting to act.
Or, rather, it is waiting... until afterthe election.
"[While] ads are an important way to express voice, we plan to temporarily stop running all social issue, electoral or political ads in the US after the polls close on November 3, to reduce opportunities for confusion or abuse," reads the company's blog post.
Notably, Facebook had already promised to prevent newpolitical ads from running on the platform in the week before the election. This takes it further, however, making sure people can't pay to spread political messages after the polls close — at least for an indeterminate amount of time.
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Of course, one significant spreader of election-related misinformation, Donald Trump, doesn't need to pay to get his message out on Facebook at all. His Facebook posts, like a May 20 post falsely linking mail-in voting to fraud, spread fine without any additional ad spending on the part of his campaign.
In other words, Facebook's half measure will do nothing to address the actual issue: Donald Trump uses Facebook to spread dangerous lies and misinformation.
Thankfully, there's more: Facebook also announced plans to label candidate posts should either candidate try to prematurely declare victory.
These are just mockups, and Facebook warns "Content and design might change as we refine the products before launch."Credit: facebook
"[If] a candidate or party declares premature victory before a race is called by major media outlets," reads the Facebook post, "we will add more specific information in the notifications that counting is still in progress and no winner has been determined."
SEE ALSO: Watch the anti-Facebook ad set to run during the VP debate
Facebook does not say if it will take the claim down.
Essentially, Facebook is trying to solve the problem of Facebook. Phew. We were beginning to get worried.
These are just mockups, and Facebook warns "Content and design might change as we refine the products before launch."Credit: facebook
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