A few hours before the closing of polling stations in the United States, Facebook, Twitter, and their armies of moderators were mobilized on Tuesday to control the flood of disinformation still abundant on the platforms.
Facebook, Twitter, YouTube (Google) and their armies of moderators were mobilized Tuesday to control the still abundant flow of disinformation on the platforms a few hours before the closing of polling stations in the United States.
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An unprecedented arsenal of measures to guarantee the integrity of the vote
Social networks, anxious to restore their tarnished reputation in the 2016 presidential election, have deployed an arsenal of unprecedented measures to ensure the integrity of the vote, but NGOs and politicians criticize many flaws in the application of the rules .
A truncated and hijacked video of Joe Biden, where the Democratic candidate appears to say that Barack Obama's administration has set up a vast system of electoral fraud, has for example been viewed about 17 million times on different sites, according to the NGO Avaaz.
"This is a major alarm signal which shows that the platforms are still not ready in the face of disinformation", warns the association in a statement Tuesday.
The video was shared by both Donald Trump's official campaign and supporters, and also as memes - drawings or photos of the former vice president with a false quote.
Avaaz further denounces numerous occurrences around a false rumor that "the left is preparing a coup if Trump is re-elected" as well as "very partisan Facebook pages and groups that try to create a buzz around very local on suspicion of fraud and irregularities in key states, to insinuate that there will be fraud and interference at the national level.
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Facebook worried
Facebook, above all now fears incitement to violence, false content and all messages that could ignite the powder.
"I am worried that there is a risk of civil unrest across the country, as our nation is so divided and election results will potentially take days or weeks to be finalized," Mark Zuckerberg said on Thursday. boss of the Californian group.
Donald Trump regularly raises, without proof, the threat of mass electoral fraud during early voting, which is very popular this year due to the pandemic.
At his last campaign rally Monday night in Michigan, he again attacked the legitimacy of postal voting.
"Some election results will not be available for days or weeks, this means that everything is going as planned," reassured Facebook under the video of the event broadcast on the page of the tenant of the White House.
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Twitter again hides a tweet from Donald Trump
Also Monday evening, Twitter again masked a message from the president and indicated that it was "likely to be misleading as to the mode of participation in an election."
The platforms have provided safeguards if ever candidates announce their victory prematurely.
In this case, "we will add more specific information in the warning messages below its posts, as well as in the notifications at the top of the news feed, and we will continue to post the latest results from your Info Center on the elections, "Facebook's press service tweeted Monday evening.
The social network tried to restrict political advertising more strictly during the last week of the campaign, with some hiccups.
He decided to ban them simply when the polling stations close.