Facebook Chief Zuckerberg Braces for Civil Unrest

On Thursday, Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg warned of the potential for civil unrest as votes are counted in a US election that will be the social network's "test."

Zuckerberg shared his concern at the leading social network's definition of protections against disinformation and voter intimidation aimed at preventing the kinds of fraud and harassment that occurred four years ago, reports AFP.

“I’m worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days or weeks to be finalized there is a risk of civil unrest,” said Zuckerberg, who had also been grilled during a session on Capitol Hill earlier this week.

“Given this, companies like ours need to go well beyond what we’ve done before.”

Earlier this week, uncertainty about Facebook political advertising marked the start of what was expected to be a cooling-off time ahead of the November 3 US presidential election.

After blunders surfaced around a ban on new paid political advertising being released in the week before Election Day, competing parties complained that Facebook was undermining campaign efforts.

“We’re investigating the issues of some ads being paused incorrectly, and some advertisers having trouble making changes to their campaigns,” Facebook product manager Rob Leathern said in a tweet when the ban kicked on Tuesday.

By getting the ads loaded into Facebook before the deadline, and then disseminating them to a broader audience later, political ad publishers may circumvent the ban.

Facebook, headquartered in California, has also tightened its guidelines on political ads in several respects ahead of the 2020 election, including banning attempts to disrupt the democratic process.

In the Facebook paid posts library — a list viewable by the public — for President Donald Trump’s campaign, what appeared to be a victory ad is already visible.

And on Tuesday, senior media advisor for Democratic presidential contender Joe Biden, Megan Clasen, tweeted a screen capture of a Trump Facebook ad showing a picture of the president and the message “Election Day Is Today.”

But the former vice president’s campaign had been told by Facebook they could not launch ads saying election day was “today” or even “tomorrow,” Clasen said in the tweet.

Democratic political strategist Eric Reif said on Twitter that he and others were working to have ads restored that had been mistakenly removed by Facebook.

“While next week will be a test for Facebook, I am proud of the work we have done here,” Zuckerberg said.

“I also know that our work doesn’t stop after November 3rd,” Zuckerberg said.

“So we will keep anticipating new threats, evolving our approach and fighting to protect the integrity of the democratic process and the right of people to make their voices heard around the world.”