Did Joe Biden or Donald Trump win the election? This is how Facebook will tell you who the next president is
Facebook says it will alert U.S. users to the winner of the presidential election at the top of Facebook and Instagram feeds.
The social media company made the announcement as votes were still being counted, with Joe Biden leading in Arizona and Nevada and President Donald Trump’s leads shrinking in Georgia and Pennsylvania.
Facebook said it would rely on wire service Reuters and independent decision desks at major news outlets such as ABC News and The Associated Press.
The notification will say: “A Presidential Winner Has Been Projected” and then either Biden or Trump “is the projected winner of the 2020 US Presidential Election.”
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The notification will also include a timestamp.
“We will also apply a label with similar text on presidential candidates’ posts, with a link to our Voting Information Center to see more about the election results,” Facebook said.
Also on Thursday, Facebook said it would deploy “break glass” measures to restrict the flow of election misinformation as civil unrest grows during the wait for election results.
“As vote counting continues, we are seeing more reports of inaccurate claims about the election. While many of these claims have low engagement on our platform, we are taking additional temporary steps, which we’ve previously discussed, to keep this content from reaching more people,” the company said in a statement.
Facebook said it’s demoting content on Facebook and Instagram, including debunked claims about voting. It is also limiting the distribution of live videos that may relate to the election.
These are some of the most significant steps by Facebook to curb potentially dangerous misinformation that has spread since Election Day, at times amplified by Trump or his allies. Trump’s social media posts on Facebook and Twitter have been flagged numerous times for being misleading.
In a news conference Thursday evening, Trump accused “big tech” of trying to “steal” the election, echoing the rallying cry of supporters on social media.
Earlier Thursday, Facebook shut down a fast-growing pro-Trump “Stop the Steal” group calling for “boots on the ground to protect the integrity of the vote” over “worrying calls for violence.”