election 2020
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Instagram will make suspicious accounts verify their identities
Instagram is taking new steps to root out bots and other accounts trying to manipulate its platform.
Facebook launches Voting Information Center for the 2020 US election
Facebook’s Voting Information Center is now live on its main platform and on Instagram. In that announcement, the company said it was building the hub as part of the “largest voting campaign in American history,” which aims to urge four million people register for the upcoming election in the US.
Facebook will link all 2020 US election posts to its voter hub
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg shared additional details about the company's 2020 US election plans on Friday.
Twitter fact checks Trump’s false tweets about election fraud
Twitter urges users to 'get the facts' in response to Trump’s 'misleading' tweets.
Twitter suspends 70 accounts posting identical pro-Bloomberg content
Mike Bloomberg's presidential campaign has been much shorter than his competitors and, so far, much louder. With a huge budget, it's paid for posts by social media influencers as well as standard advertisements. However, the LA Times reports that on Friday, Twitter suspended some 70-odd accounts for breaking its rules against "against platform manipulation and spam." According to Twitter, this wasn't just a ban impacting some full-on bots, but it wiped out accounts sending out identical pro-Bloomberg messages. One shown in the tweet read, "A President Is Born: Barbra Streisand sings Mike's praises. Check out her tweet." While some bans could be permanent, other accounts could be restored if the account holder verifies they still have control. According to the LAT, many of the accounts they looked at had only been created in the last few months, A few days ago, the Wall Street Journal reported the campaign was hiring "deputy digital organizers" that might do everything from phone banking to social media posts, but if they want to keep their accounts, then they'll probably want to vary slightly from the recommended messaging.
Facebook plans to clarify when pro-Bloomberg posts come from staffers
Thanks to Mike Bloomberg, Facebook wants to make it more obvious when paid campaign staffers share posts promoting candidates, CNBC reports. This is a direct response to Bloomberg paying organizers to post on social media, but it could apply to any campaign staffers sharing political views on Facebook.
Recommended Reading: The lasting effect of the Iowa Caucuses
Iowa might have screwed up the whole nomination process Nate Silver, FiveThirtyEight By now you probably know the story. The Iowa Democratic Party decided to use an app to report results from its caucuses this week. These events were the first primary-type votes cast in the 2020 Democratic presidential race, and would've set the tone for New Hampshire and the states to follow. Except the app failed, phone lines were jammed and it took the better part of the week for the full numbers to come out. So just how badly didn't Iowa screw up the whole process? FiveThrityEight's Nate Silver explains the candidate(s) who "won" didn't get the massive bump they would have and the field is still way too crowded.
Cloudflare is providing free anti-DDoS services to US political campaigns
With a major election cycle less than a year away, Cloudflare says it's working with politicians in the US to secure their campaigns against cyberattacks through a program called Cloudflare for Campaigns. The service, which includes protection against denial-of-service (DDoS) attempts, is available to both House and Senate candidates for free as long as they meet specific fundraising requirements. House candidates will need to show at least $50,000 in donation receipts, while those running for a Senate seat will need $100,000 in donations. Presidential hopefuls are also eligible as long as they're polling above five percent nationally. Cloudflare says it will also offer the program for a fee to political campaigns outside of the US, as well those that don't meet the free requirements in the US.
Twitter is bringing back candidate labels for the 2020 US elections
Ahead of the US elections next year, Twitter says it's bringing back election labels, a feature the company introduced during the 2018 midterms to help increase the visibility of political tweets.
Snapchat releases political ad spending data ahead of 2020 election
Snapchat joins other social media giants in ramping up transparency efforts ahead of the 2020 US presidential election. The company has released a library of all the political and issue-based ad campaigns it has displayed on its app. The downloadable spreadsheets -- for both 2018 and 2019 -- includes detailed information on who paid for the ads and the demographic they aimed to target.
Beto O'Rourke wants to hold internet companies liable for hate speech
If some politicians have their way, internet companies might be held responsible for hate that exists on their platform. Presidential candidate Beto O'Rourke has proposed amending the Communication Decency Act's Section 230, which protects internet companies from being held liable for their users' actions, to "remove legal immunity" for sites and providers that "knowingly promote" material that spurs violence. The operators of a community like 8chan, for example, might have been held responsible for routinely allowing the extremism that led to shootings in places like Christchurch and O'Rourke's hometown of El Paso.
Kamala Harris sees Facebook as a 'utility' that might need breaking up
Senator Elizabeth Warren isn't the only major presidential candidate eyeing the possibility of breaking up Facebook. Fellow Senator Kamala Harris stated in a CNN interview that she believed the US should "seriously take a look" at splitting the social network. It's effectively an unregulated "utility," she argued -- when "very few people can get by" without using Facebook in some capacity, you have to treat it more like a vital service.
