A group of Democrats who are in charge of overseeing elections in their respective states have written a letter to Facebook’s parent company, requesting them to discontinue running advertisements that make false claims about the 2020 presidential election being stolen.
The secretaries of state from Colorado, Maine, New Jersey, Oregon, Rhode Island, Washington, and Vermont wrote a letter to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. They expressed concern that allowing these ads could make people trust elections less and increase the risk of political violence against election workers. This has already caused some workers to quit their jobs. Wisconsin Secretary of State Sarah Godlewski, who is not responsible for elections, also signed the letter.
“The secretaries wrote a letter to the tech giant on Thursday, expressing concern that Meta is enabling extremists and election deniers to further undermine our elections.” “We, as Secretaries of State, strongly disagree with Meta’s decision to allow ads that promote the denial of election results. We urge you to reverse this policy before it causes further harm.”
Even after almost four years, there are still conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and false claims that voting machines were manipulated to commit widespread fraud. Former President Donald Trump is still claiming that he won the election and wants to be reelected, even though there is no evidence of widespread fraud.
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Reviews, recounts, and audits conducted in the swing states where he contested his loss have all confirmed that Democrat Joe Biden won the election. Even Trump’s former attorney general stated that there was no widespread fraud that could have changed the outcome of the election. During an interview with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel this week, Trump made a false statement by claiming that he won Wisconsin, even though he actually lost to Biden by approximately 21,000 votes. Trump said he would accept the results of the November election as long as everything is fair.
Since the 2020 election, some election workers in certain areas of the country have received death threats and experienced harassment. A recent survey conducted by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU revealed that 34% of local election officials reported knowing about one or more colleagues or workers who quit their jobs due to concerns about safety, threats, or intimidation. Due to the current situation, there has been a significant change in the number of election workers across the country.
YouTube, which is owned by Google, recently announced a policy similar to Meta’s (formerly Facebook) from last year. They stated that they will no longer remove content that falsely claims previous U.S. presidential elections were affected by fraud.
Meta has stated that it is committed to protecting elections worldwide and has defended its efforts in doing so. A spokesperson from the company shared information about how the company approaches elections. They mentioned their plan for the 2022 midterm elections, stating that they will regularly check content to see if it goes against their community standards. This includes their policies on election and voter interference, hate speech, coordinating harm and publicizing crime, and bullying and harassment.
Meta has stated that it will delete election-related content that contains false information about voting dates, locations, times, and methods. It will also remove any content that promotes violence related to voting or the election results. The company stated in their plan that they would not accept ads that question the legitimacy of an upcoming or ongoing election.
The group of Democratic secretaries of state is concerned about the ads related to the 2020 election. Specifically, they are worried about campaign ads that have been repeating false claims that the election was rigged. The letter was created by a group called the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, which is connected to the Democratic National Committee. It was only shared with Democrats.
“If people think an election was stolen, they are less likely to trust the system, and that makes fewer people vote,” explained Maine Secretary of State Shenna Bellows in a Friday interview. “We want voters to have accurate information about elections and feel confident in their ability to take part.”
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