Meta Aims To Avoid Political Controversy Ahead Of US Midterms

Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc META opted to stick to the 2020 general election tactics for the U.S. midterms to handle political ads and fight misinformation, Bloomberg reports.

Meta looks to follow a familiar playbook focusing on scouring misinformation about voting logistics and restricting any new political ads in the week before Election Day.

Meta will remove posts that mislead people on where, when, and how to vote or that call for violence based on the voting or election outcome. 

Also Read: Meta Bans Over 400 Facebook Accounts In Preparation For Philippines' 2022 General Elections

It will remove ads pushing people not to vote or questioning the legitimacy of an election. 

Meta worked with ten outside fact-checking partners, including five Spanish-language organizations, to review and label misleading posts.

Meta will not allow any new ads in the week before the election. Marketers cannot change any of the ad design or audience targeting parameters during the week before the vote.

Facebook faced flak after the 2016 U.S. election for unwittingly selling ads to Russian trolls. Facebook also faced criticism for fueling January 6, 2021, Capitol Hill Riot.

Facebook had launched new penalties in response to the Capitol Riot vandalism.

In 2021, Facebook weighed forming an election commissioner to transfer some of its political decision-making to an advisory body to take the edge off CEO Mark Zuckerberg as the sole decision-maker on political content.

Price Action: META shares traded lower by 0.82% at $177.99 on the last check Tuesday.

Photo by JD Lasica via Wikimedia Commons