Recently, the heads of major social media websites have declared what precautions will be taken as we near the presidential elections. Twitter has reported that none of the candidates will be allowed to claim they've won the election before a declared result, nor are they allowed to retweet content that encourages interference with the election process. Facebook is yet to voice their plan, however the wall street journal reports that they plan on altering their news feed algorithms to suppress viral posts that encourage fake news and violence. Google is working to provide authoritative election results. In the days after the election, if you search "Who won the election", Googlw will direct you to the Associated Press's updated results. Along with this, google will ban all ads relating to the 2020 election after the Election Day. Youtube has said it will ban "misleading claims about voting or content that encourages interference in the democratic process". It will also remove all content claiming that mail-in ballots were used to manipulate the elections. Reddit has said that information that misleads the election results is not allowed and would be removed from the site. Social media has been a catalyst that has helped people discuss information regarding the election during this ongoing pandemic, but at the same time it has been used to mislead people through the spread of fake news. Do you think that what these social media companies are doing will be enough to avoid confusion and miscommunication?
Clayton, James. “How Social Media Is Preparing for US Election Chaos.” BBC News, BBC, 31 Oct. 2020, www.bbc.com/news/technology-54738873.
I think it is a step in the right direction, and will limit the amount of false information circulating in social media. However, it will be near impossible to actually find and remove all of these types of posts. I think it is good these companies are attempting this, but it will not be perfect.
ReplyDeleteI think it is quite important to combat false information, but outright silencing voices seems to not be the correct path. Freedom of speech and press are important rights in the US, and I think they should be protected online.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Jack. However, after watching the first night of the election, it's likely some of the candidates seem to want to jump the gun. Twitter was loaded with "Fake News" last night from Trump and his supporters. Additionally, we might not know the election results for a week to come. That leaves a lot of uncertainty. This could leave to negative affects on the economy.
ReplyDelete