Facebook and Twitter have been under more pressure to combat election misinformation.
Angela Lang/CNET
Facebook and Twitter grappled with another wave of election misinformation this week as Georgia voters cast their ballots in two runoffs that will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the US Senate.
The races are pivotal because the outcome will affect President-elect Joe Biden’s legislative agenda, which includes efforts around the coronavirus pandemic, economic relief, climate change and racial equity. More than 3 million early votes had already been cast in Tuesday’s runoffs. Incumbent Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler face Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff, a documentary filmmaker, and the Rev. Raphael Warnock. A runoff election occurs when a candidate falls short of the majority of votes needed to win.
With the stakes high, social networks have been trying to show yet again they’re doing a better job at combating political misinformation. Researchers, though, have been pointing out that some of their efforts have fallen short. There are also still questions about whether tactics such as labeling social media misinformation works.
Twitter doesn’t allow political ads and started labeling false tweets, including from President Donald Trump. Like in the presidential election, the company said it will also label false or premature claims about results and its rules against interfering in the election.
“As we did throughout the 2020 US [presidential] election, our teams are working in partnership with election officials and taking strong action to protect the online, public conversation happening around the Georgia runoff election,” a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement.
Facebook also uses labels and partners with third-party fact-checkers that debunk false claims. But the company exempts politicians from fact-checking, arguing that political speech is already heavily scrutinized. Facebook has a public database displaying ads running on the social network. The social network temporarily paused political ads but lifted the ban in December for the Georgia runoffs. Facebook and Twitter both faced criticism, including from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, that a political ads ban would harm efforts to inform Georgia voters about the Jan. 5 runoffs.
Facebook’s decision to lift the political ad ban also came with a tradeoff. This week, Avaaz, a global activist group, said it found 104 Republican Facebook ads between Dec. 23 and 29 that appeared to violate the social network’s rules against sensationalist content and discriminatory practices. Roughly 47 of 95 ads containing fact-checked political disinformation came from politicians. As of Tuesday morning, Avaaz said Facebook removed 18 of the ads the group flagged. Most of the removed ads contained false claims from the Senate Leadership Fund that Ossoff wants to defund the police, allegations the politician has denied and fact-checkers have debunked.
“Plain and simple, Facebook is not protecting Georgia voters from political disinformation. Facebook opened the floodgates for false and misleading information targeting Georgia voters when it lifted the ban on new political ads last month,” said Nathan Miller, Avaaz’s campaign director, in a statement.
Facebook didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Company spokesperson Andy Stone told The Washington Post claims from Republican campaigns were also made in direct mail along with radio and TV appearances. “The difference is Facebook’s ad library is transparent, making the claims more readily available for scrutiny,” he said.
In December, Avaaz also found evidence Facebook’s labeling of posts with false election information about the Georgia runoffs has been inconsistent.
On Tuesday, The Markup reported after Facebook reversed its political ads ban some Georgia users started seeing more partisan content on their news feed. The nonprofit paid 58 Facebook users to allow the organization to monitor their Facebook news feeds. Stone said on Twitter The Markup drew “pretty strong conclusions” based on a small sample of users.
Meanwhile, social media users including high-profile politicians are still spreading online lies. On Tuesday, Trump continued to push false claims about election fraud. Twitter added a label under Trump’s tweet, noting his claim about election fraud was disputed, after he tweeted that Perdue and Loeffler will fight “the ridiculous Electoral College Certification of Biden.” Trump posts were also labeled on Facebook. The social network’s labels mentioned there was no evidence of widespread election fraud.
Facebook this week also removed an ad from The Lincoln Project, an anti-Trump PAC, that encouraged Republicans not to vote.
