Facebook has added “voting information” labels to multiple posts from President Donald Trump this week, and the same label to a single post from Joe Biden.
The Washington Post reports that social media giant Facebook has added a voting information label to a number of President Trump’s posts on the platform from earlier this week, and attached the same label to a single post from Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Tuesday.
On Tuesday morning, President Trump posted: “Mail-In Voting, unless changed by the courts, will lead to the most CORRUPT ELECTION in our Nation’s History! #RIGGEDELECTION.”
Facebook then applied a label below which reads: “Get official voting info on how to vote” with link to the federal government’s website about absentee voting which includes voting by mail.
Facebook said last month that it would begin labeling all posts from any user about voting with a prompt to review its own voting information page. But while Facebook develops that voting information page, it is adding labels to posts from federal candidates and elected officials that point to the federal government’s site, according to Guy Rosen, the company’s vice president of integrity.
We're rolling out labels that link to official info about the 2020 US elections on posts about voting from federal candidates and elected officials, while we work to build our Voting Information Center and add labels to all posts about voting. More here: https://t.co/yQtri6pBlZ pic.twitter.com/P0hlXZRrzv
— Guy Rosen (@guyro) July 16, 2020
Facebook’s labeling of politicians’ posts over various issues has been controversial. The company recently promised to remove posts that incite violence or suppress voting even from public figures and elected officials, but it will leave other policy-violating posts on its platform with an information label attached.
Facebook added voting information labels to some of President Trump’s posts from Sunday and Monday including one featuring a campaign video ad and a repost of another announcement from his campaign’s page.
Following the labeling of a post from Biden asking for campaign donations, Biden spokesman Bill Russo retweeted a tweet about the label on President Trump’s mail-in post writing: “What an absolute, abject failure.”
In another tweet, Russo mocked the decision to label Biden’s posts stating that they were too different from President Trump’s to deserve a label.
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
Trump campaign spokesperson Samantha Zager defended the President’s post about vote-in mail fraud stating: “The President was absolutely correct. Universal vote by mail is ripe for fraud and would lead to a corrupt election. The same label has been applied to posts on Joe Biden’s page.”
Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News covering issues of free speech and online censorship. Follow him on Twitter @LucasNolan or contact via secure email at the address lucasnolan@protonmail.com
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