Facebook adds info label to Trump post about elections

Facebook on Tuesday followed through with a new policy of adding additional voting information to posts from politicians related to elections, appending a link to a post from President Trump.

The post in question claims, baselessly, that mail-in voting will “lead to the most CORRUPT ELECTION in our Nation’s History!” The hashtag #RIGGEDELECTION is also included.

Facebook last week began attaching labels to posts by federal elected officials and candidates leading users to usa.gov/voting, which contains basic info about elections and voting.

Former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has had the label added to some of his posts as well, including ones simply asking supporters to vote out Trump in the fall.

Bill Russo, a Biden campaign spokesperson, called out Facebook for applying the same label to Trump and Biden’s posts.

Donald Trump: *falsely shouts fire in a crowded theater*

Facebook: “Fire is hot and can be put out by water.”

Joe Biden: “Buildings should have adequate fire alarms and sprinklers.”

Facebook: “Fire is hot and can…” https://t.co/Wn5DlzGRsd

— Bill Russo (@BillR) July 21, 2020

For posts, like the one by Trump, that mention mail-in voting, the link will take users to a section with state-by-state instructions on how to register to vote by mail.

The link does nothing to dispute the misinformation in Trump’s post.

The new election labels come after months of intense pressure on Mark Zuckerberg to tackle false or hateful information on his platform.

Zuckerberg has preferred a hands-off approach for political content, a stance that has been criticized internally and externally.

Unlike Facebook, Twitter has taken steps to let users know when Trump spreads disinformation.

In May, it began placing labels on Trump’s tweets about mail-in voting, pointing out factual errors and providing links to authoritative fact-checks.

A spokesperson for Twitter told The Hill that the same post that was labeled on Facebook does not violate any of Twitter’s policies and will not be labeled.

Per the platform’s civic integrity policy, Twitter will not take action against “broad, non-specific statements.”

Updated at 11:25 a.m.