The fight against election-related misinformation continued for Facebook Thursday, as the social network took down a public group, Stop the Steal 2020, that had attracted more than 300,000 members in just two days. (Adweek)
“In line with the exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of heightened tension, we have removed the Group ‘Stop the Steal,’ which was creating real-world events,” Facebook said. “The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group.” (Vice)
The company has also blocked the hashtag #stopthesteal from search, noting its Community Standards. (Mashable)
Additionally, Facebook is planning to enact new measures to make it more difficult for election misinformation to spread virally across its platform, two people with knowledge of the matter said Thursday, as the outcome of the presidential race remained uncertain. (NYT)
One new feature will be to require users seeking to share election-related material to click through a notice encouraging them to visit Facebook’s voting-information center, a form of “friction” that serves as a brake on the spread of problematic posts. But what is likely a bigger change will occur behind the scenes as the company adjusts the algorithms that classify and rank content. (WSJ)