Tag Archives: Facebook

Reuters reports: Facebook chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg told an all-staff meeting on Thursday that former Trump White House adviser Steve Bannon had not violated enough of the company’s policies to justify his suspension when he urged beheading two senior U.S. officials, according to a recording heard by Reuters. “We have specific rules around how many times you need to violate …

CNBC reports: Facebook on Monday removed a network of pages tied to former Trump advisor Steve Bannon for using tricks to increase their reach. Facebook routinely removes networks of pages set up to mislead users with disinformation. “We’ve removed several clusters of activity for using inauthentic behavior tactics to artificially boost how many people saw their content,” a spokesman for …

The Guardian reports: Thousands of Donald Trump supporters have unwittingly found themselves in a Facebook group called “Gay Communists for Socialism”, after being tricked by its creators into joining what they thought was a pro-Trump election group. On Thursday, a Facebook group called “Stop the Steal”, a reference to the president’s false claims that Joe Biden is “stealing” the US …

Buzzfeed News reports: As votes are being tallied across the country to determine the next US president, internal Facebook data shows that the company has seen a significant increase in what it calls “violence and incitement trends.” In a post to a group on Facebook’s internal message board, one employee alerted their colleagues to a nearly 45% increase in the …

CNET reports: Facebook on Thursday shut down a massive group with more than 348,000 members that was spreading misinformation about voter fraud. The public group, called “STOP THE STEAL,” was pushing false claims that Democrats are trying to “steal” the US presidential election. “In line with the exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of heightened tension, we …

Reuters reports: Facebook Inc’s Instagram said today it was making changes to its image sharing platform for U.S. users to prevent the spread of misinformation around the Nov. 3 presidential election. For users in the United States, Instagram temporarily removed the “Recent” tab from hashtag pages starting Thursday, it said in a statement on Twitter. “We’re doing this to reduce …

The Washington Post reports: State and federal investigators are expected to file antitrust charges against Facebook as soon as November, according to four people familiar with the matter, embarking on a massive legal challenge against the tech giant and its perceived ironclad grip over social media. The timing reflects a frenzy of recent activity on the part of the Federal …

Media Matters reports: Despite Facebook’s policy against manipulated media in ads, President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign ran thousands of Facebook ads in the last three months that feature manipulated photos of Democratic candidate Joe Biden. Over 2,500 ads feature images in which Biden’s coloring and facial features have been edited to make him appear older, while more than a thousand …

The Verge reports: On Tuesday, Facebook announced a new policy banning ads that discourage the use of vaccines. Timed to the beginning of flu season, the new policy is also aimed at the ongoing proliferation of anti-vaccine groups on Facebook and growing skepticism about forthcoming vaccines for COVID-19. “Our goal is to help messages about the safety and efficacy of …

The Washington Post reports: Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, announced Tuesday an additional $100 million in donations to local governments to pay for polling place rentals, poll workers, personal protective equipment and other election administration costs over the coming weeks. The donation, which follows a previous gift of $300 million for state and local governments …

TechCrunch reports: Facebook this morning announced a significant change in how it approaches Holocaust denial content on its social network. For years, the company has been criticized for not taking down this extremely offensive form of content in favor of allowing free speech and distancing itself from taking on the responsibilities of a traditional publisher. Today, it’s reversing that position, …

The Washington Post reports: Facebook said Thursday it will permanently ban from its platform an Arizona-based marketing firm running what experts described as a domestic “troll farm” — in a probe of the deceptive behavior prompted by a Washington Post article last month. The firm, Rally Forge, was “working on behalf of Turning Point USA,” Facebook concluded in an investigation …

Will Sommer reports at The Daily Beast: Facebook announced a sweeping ban on QAnon activity Tuesday, vowing to delete content related to the pro-Trump conspiracy theory movement on its platforms. “Starting today, we will remove any Facebook Pages, Groups and Instagram accounts representing QAnon, even if they contain no violent content,” the company said in a press release. The crackdown …

CNN Business reports: Facebook on Tuesday removed a post from President Trump in which he falsely claimed that Covid-19 is less deadly than the seasonal flu. Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed the company removed the post for breaking its rules on Covid-19 misinformation. President Trump has, by his own admission, played down the threat of Covid-19. Now, while battling his …

Vice News reports: Twitter told Motherboard that it will suspend people who openly hope for Trump’s death on the platform. Twitter referred to an “abusive behavior” rule that’s been on the books since April. “Content that wishes, hopes or expresses a desire for death, serious bodily harm or fatal disease against an individual is against our rules,” Twitter said in …

The Hill reports: A Facebook official on Wednesday announced changes to the platform’s ad policy, pledging that the site would remove political ads that baselessly link to certain kinds of allegations of widespread voting fraud, such as false claims about mail-in voting. The move, which comes as President Trump regularly makes claims without evidence that mail-in votes lead to widespread …

NBC News reports: Facebook said Wednesday that it had taken down ads from the Trump campaign that claimed without evidence that accepting refugees from abroad would increase risks related to the coronavirus pandemic. “We rejected these ads because we don’t allow claims that people’s physical safety, health, or survival is threatened by people on the basis of their national origin …

Axios reports: On the eve of the first presidential debate, the Biden campaign is pressing Facebook to remove posts by President Trump — and slamming the social media company as “the nation’s foremost propagator of disinformation about the voting process.” Why it matters: By publicly escalating the conflict, the campaign is pressing Facebook to enforce its policies against misinformation more …

Fast Company reports: Facebook has said it will reject political ads that spread misinformation about the outcome of the November 3 election, several hours after Fast Company reported that the company’s stated policies would do nothing to prevent a candidate such as Donald Trump from declaring victory before the final results are tabulated. “We will be rejecting political ads that …

The New York Times reports: Facebook has detected limited Chinese operations intended to both help and hurt President Trump’s re-election chances, the company announced on Tuesday, the first public disclosure of Chinese efforts to influence the presidential election in November. The Chinese activity, while modest and not directly attributed to the government in Beijing, could undercut Mr. Trump’s repeated contention …