Facebook Rejects 22 Lakh Advertisements Ahead of US Elections

Facebook said that it has been increasing its efforts to avoid a repeat of events leading up to the 2016 election.

Last month, Facebook was bracing for tough measures to restrict content in case the November elections in the US descend into chaos or violent protests, Clegg said.

(Photo: iStock)

Facebook has withdrawn over 22 lakh advertisements and 120,000 posts on Facebook and Instagram that attempted to obstruct the 3 November United States presidential election, Facebook's head of global affairs Nick Clegg revealed on Sunday, 18 October.

In an interview to French media outlet Journal du Dimanche, Clegg informed that the company posted warnings on 150 million fake news verified by the third-party independent media, IANS reported.

The former British deputy prime minister said that Facebook has been increasing its efforts to avoid a repeat of events leading up to the 2016 US presidential elections. In the 2016 US presidential election, the threats clearly came from outside, he added.

“In 2020, the increase in the misuse of our platform comes from inside, from the United States. This is the biggest change. Here too, we are adapting and taking action: we have just suppressed all the accounts, pages and groups linked to the QAnon movement," the Facebook executive informed.

“We are not foolproof, and we will never remove or identify all false information or hateful content. But our election strategy, our teams and our technologies are continually improving.”

Nick Clegg

Facebook is under pressure to help maintain the integrity of the elections has been accused of failing to prevent attempts to create divisions in American society through disinformation campaigns by foreign players during the 2016 presidential election.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg last month announced additional steps the company was taking to help secure the integrity of the US elections by encouraging voting, connecting people to authoritative information, and reducing the risks of post-election confusion.

These include measures to attach an informational label to content that seeks to delegitimise the outcome of the election or discuss the legitimacy of voting methods, for example, by claiming that lawful methods of voting will lead to fraud.

On Wednesday, Trump had criticised both Facebook and Twitter for blocking an unverified New York Post story about Hunter Biden, the son of his election rival Joe Biden.

(With IANS inputs.)