There ’s been a ton of pressure on Facebook to prevent the sorting of , uh , political shenanigansthat ran rearing across its platform in the run - up to the 2016 election . The company ’s latest tool in this fight is its tenacious - awaitedvoter information centerthat ’s position to roll out out nationwide by the end of today . The online hub is intend to offer important intel about vote in the coming presidential airstream — and more — over the come months , exchangeable to the company’seffortssurrounding coronavirus - related misinformation . Facebook substance abuser across the land should see the hub immobilise to the top of their news feeds as election dark pull back closer .
Naomi Gleit , Facebook ’s vice president of product direction and societal impact , said on a press call before today that the hub is currently contrive to be a definitive guide on voter readjustment , with Facebook ’s intention to register4 million Americansto voter turnout this class . On the call , Gleit pointed to the company’strack recordof getting zillion of folks to the polls . What she left out ( of grade ) , is the society ’s track record of allowing misinformation — peculiarly misinformation from President Trump — to proliferate across the internet . As Recodepointed outearlier today , everyone from political pundits to Facebook’sown employeeshave criticized the ship’s company ’s hand - off approach to Trump’smisleading claimsabout vote by mail .
But rather than , say , fact - checking these statement the same direction platforms like Twitter have been doingfor months , the troupe seems convinced that giving people more facts and more context is , in fact , the answer . It also just materialise to be the answer that allows Trump ’s statement to stand , unchecked , while the company pulls inmillionsof advert dollars from the Republican presidential candidate .
Graphic: Facebook
Gleit added that as we get closer to Election Day — and election nighttime , after the polls close — the focal point of the elector hub will shift accordingly , from registering to vote to the specifics of voting in a hold state , then to the consequence of the election itself . On the call , Facebook security exec Nathaniel Gleicher mentioned that because “ we may not have results on election night , ” there ’s a good hazard that “ bad histrion ” will fake the information vacancy that may lead . This raw hub , he explain , will hopefully have enough detail to give citizenry the “ context ” they need to understand the solvent as they wrap in , he added .
But , again , it ’s undecipherable how much dear that context will do . Though the hub will offer definitive entropy with the help of third - party fact checker , it still necessitate users to click through a series of links to get all the facts they need . And when faced with an unchecked post from Trump coming into court in their news provender powerful alongside that hub , it ’s sturdy to tell if Facebook users will go with their ( potentially misinformed ) gut , or make the effort to get all the fact they need .
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