Netizens from the United States who post on the topic of voting will see a kind of labels attached to their messages – links directing readers of posts to sources of official information about the upcoming presidential and congressional elections in early November. It is one of the social network’s latest activities to counter the misinformation about the conduct of elections posted on its platform, in which, for the first time in the country’s history, most ballots can be mailed to election commissions. Similar links to the posts of politicians (including the posts of President Donald Trump) regarding voting at polling stations and by mail, the Network began to place back in July. The links will direct netizens to a new polling information center, similar to the coronavirus pandemic clearinghouse, which has been visited by billions of netizens around the world in a few months.
The Network administration, in response to continued criticism of its efforts to combat election-related disinformation, said the Network is “actively discussing with officials the potential threat of election disinformation on its platform.” “The protracted process of counting ballots, when the voting results remain unclear, could sow distrust in the overall election results,” said a blog post by Naomi Glight, vice president of the Network. “One way to combat this kind of misinformation is to use the polling information center and the US Elections shorthand, where voters will have access to the latest official information and news on and after election night.”