• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, June 17, 2020

In two more efforts to diffuse intense criticism of Facebook because of its refusal to remove or even label false political content or ads from the platform, CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in a USA Today op-ed yesterday that the company will enable users to opt out of seeing political ads, and will run a campaign to encourage Americans to register and vote.

"For those of you who've already made up your minds and just want the election to be over, we hear you — so we're also introducing the ability to turn off seeing political ads," he added. "We'll still remind you to vote." 

The opt-out feature will begin rolling out on Facebook and Instagram today, and will be available to all within the next few weeks, according to NBC News.

The company is launching a center with "authoritative" information on how and when to vote; details about voter registration, voting by mail and early voting; reminders to register; and posts from state election officials and verified local election authorities.

The Voting Information Center will reside at the top of the Facebook News Feed and on Instagram. 

Facebook expects more than 160 million people in the U.S. will see the information between July and November, and the goal is to "help 4 million people register to vote," wrote Zuckerberg, calling the initiative "the largest voting information campaign in American history."

Previous Facebook campaigns helped register 2 million voters fort he 2016 election and 2 million for the 2018 elections.