Facebook Admits It Will Censor the Conversation if Elections Results Are Unclear
Facebook will use its powers to shape the national conversation in the wake of an unclear or tumultuous election, putting the controversial social media giant in an uncomfortably powerful position following any election chaos.
The company’s head of global affairs, Nick Clegg, confirmed plans to censor and restrict content to the Financial Times on Tuesday, according to Business Insider.
The Facebook official said the information lockdown would come as a result of widespread unrest, a situation that looks increasingly likely as the left continues to threaten riots and violence against President Donald Trump.
Clegg vowed the company would aggressively “restrict the circulation of content” deemed inflammatory.
Executives, including CEO Mark Zuckerberg, would have a direct say in any rulings made by the censorship team.
However, it doesn’t seem as though anyone defending themselves with force in this post-election chaos will get a fair shake from Facebook. Just ask Kyle Rittenhouse — someone the platform says committed “mass murder” despite mountains of contrary evidence.
Posts casting doubt on this narrative have been taken down, while those baselessly slandering the young man as a terrorist remain live.
Keep in mind that this wasn’t decided by an investigation or any sort of public discourse, but by the Big Tech overlords at Facebook.
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If they can do this to a 17-year-old boy, they can do it to anybody.
Considering Facebook’s rampant problems with its anti-conservative bias, it appears the campaign to control the post-election narrative will fall heavily against the American right.
It’s not just average citizens who will feel the might of Facebook’s content restrictions, but also candidates taking center stage in the elections.
Andy Stone, the policy communications director at Facebook, confirmed the platform would ban political ads that claim victory before results have been declared.
Facebook will be rejecting political ads that claim victory before the results of the 2020 election have been declared.
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) September 23, 2020
Stone said Facebook would be relying on Reuters and the National Election Pool in its attempt at playing kingmaker. While these are reputable institutions, human fallibility and the chaos of the upcoming elections could lead to some questionable decisions.
As we said a couple weeks ago, we’re working with Reuters and the National Election Pool. https://t.co/hzvxVvKaYX
— Andy Stone (@andymstone) September 23, 2020
Facebook’s attempt to control the post-election conversation on its platform seems poised to create even more chaos as the men behind the curtain will be judging content by their own secret standards.
While we do need rational and healthy discussion in the months leading up to and following Election Day, it’s clear that Facebook should not be the moderator of our nation’s political future.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
