Sluice Editor’s Note: The information in this article is important for Americans to know. However, There is a substantial amount of political bias in this article. Anything in Orange has been added by Sluice Report’s Editor to help readers understand that this could be used no matter what the facts are. It will be up to Facebook to decide what the truth is and if The President of the United States has a right to inform citizen about concerns with election integrity.
SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook spent years preparing to ward off any tampering on its site ahead of November’s presidential election. Now the social network is getting ready in case President Trump interferes once the vote is over. (“Interferes” could mean bringing up valid concerns about the integrity of the vote, even if President Trump has facts to back up his claims. It will be up to big tech companies to decide what the President of the United States can tell American citizens.)
Employees at the Silicon Valley company are laying out contingency plans and walking through postelection scenarios that include attempts by Mr. Trump or his campaign to use the platform to delegitimize (or legitimately question) the results, people with knowledge of Facebook’s plans said.
Facebook is preparing steps to take should Mr. Trump wrongly claim on the site that he won another four-year term, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. Facebook is also working through how it might act if Mr. Trump tries to invalidate the results by declaring (Whether right or wrong) that the Postal Service lost mail-in ballots or that other groups meddled with the vote, the people said. (If the Mainstream Media declares Biden the winner of the 2020 Presidential election and Trump has evidence of fraud, lost votes, or other meddling it is unclear if Americans will be able to see that on these sites.)
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, and some of his lieutenants have started holding daily meetings about minimizing how the platform can be used to dispute the election, the people said. They have discussed a “kill switch” to shut off political advertising after Election Day since the ads, which Facebook does not police for truthfulness, could be used to spread misinformation, the people said.
The preparations underscore how rising concerns over the integrity of the November election have reached social media companies, whose sites can be used to amplify lies, conspiracy theories and inflammatory messages. YouTube and Twitter have also discussed plans for action if the postelection period becomes complicated, according to disinformation and political researchers who have advised the firms.
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