Facebook bans new political advertisement before the US election

Mark Zuckerberg said — “ This election is not going to be Bussiness as usual” and further said - “ This could be a very HEATED period”.

In a recent turn of events, Facebook stated it will not accept any political advertisements before one week from the elections (to be held on 3 November) and terminate the post which tries to discourage voting or makes any false result claims, Mark Zuckerberg CEO of Facebook announced this on Thursday(Sept 3).

Explaining this measure Facebook CEO said, “This election is not going to be business as usual”. He also said he “generally” believed that “the best antidote to bad speech is more speech, but in the final days of an election there may not be enough time to contest new claims”.

Mr. Mark also said — “ We all have a responsibility to protect our democracy.”

Some Democrats believed that the voting period this time is going to be a Doomsday Scenario.

The announcement also contains how Facebook could be used to manipulate the election and included a warning from Zuckerberg about an increased risk of civil unrest around the US.

He said Facebook is taking measures to voters turn-out, also preparing to tackle misinformation and removing the posts by candidates prematurely declaring the results.

He said — “Many experts are predicting that we may not have a final result on election night.”

“It’s important that we prepare for this possibility in advance and understand that there could be a period of intense claims and counter-claims as the final results are counted.

“This could be a very heated period, so we’re preparing for it,” he said.

“I believe our democracy is strong enough to withstand this challenge and deliver a free and fair election — even if it takes time for every vote to be counted,” he wrote. “We can do this. But it’s going to take a concerted effort by all of us — political parties and candidates, election authorities, the media, and social networks, and ultimately voters as well — to live up to our responsibilities,” he wrote.

Facebook will be putting a Voting Information Centre panel at the top of both Facebook and Instagram “almost every day until the election” which will include video tutorials on postal voting and information on registration deadlines.