As the election vote counting process
continues, social media continue to scramble to correct years of laissez-faire practices by now struggling to strike a balance between blocking false, dangerous content and allowing for as much free
speech as possible.
The efforts continue to be a game of whack-a-mole, with Trump and supporters continuing to claim without evidence that election fraud is taking place, and some groups and
individuals seeking to incite violence.
After Steve Bannon — the right-wing pundit and former Trump advisor who was recently indicted for defrauding contributors to a campaign
supposedly supporting Trump's border wall — used his online show to praise civil war and encourage violence against FBI director Christopher Wray and chief pandemic expert Dr. Anthony Fauci,
Twitter “permanently suspended” the show (above).
In addition, YouTube removed the episode, citing its policy against inciting violence. “We will continue to be vigilant as
we enforce our policies in the post-election period,” the statement added.
Bannon, fantasizing about what Trump might do in a now extremely unlikely second term, said the two should be
fired, adding: “I’d actually like to go back to the old times of Tudor England, I’d put the heads on pikes, right, I’d put them at the two corners of the White House as a
warning to federal bureaucrats,” according to TechCrunch.
Bannon and co-host Jack Maxey proceeded to suggest that it may be time to revive the American Revolution practice of hanging “traitors.” “That’s how you won the
revolution,” said Bannon. “No one wants to talk about it. The revolution wasn’t some sort of garden party, right? It was a civil war. It was a civil war.”
Facebook
announced that it has taken down a group called “Stop the Steal 2020” that had 300,000 members and was organizing protests targeting officials still counting ballots in Michigan,
Pennsylvania, Las Vegas and Phoenix.
“In line with the exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of heightened tension, we have removed the Group ‘Stop the
Steal,’ which was creating real-world events,” Facebook said in a statement to TechCrunch. “The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process, and we
saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group.”
“In line with the exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of heightened tension, we have removed
the Group ‘Stop the Steal,’ which was creating real-world events,” said a Facebook spokesperson in a statement emailed to TechCrunch. “The group was organized around the
delegitimization of the election process, and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group.”
Facebook also began blocking some hashtags being used to spread election
disinformation, including #stopthesteal — which has been promoted by Donald Trump, Jr. and other Trump campaign officials — and #sharpiegate.
Instead of taking users to search
results for the hashtags, Facebook is now showing a page that explains that posts with the hashtag are being “temporarily hidden” because “some content in those posts go against our
Community Standards.”
Facebook also announced that it will reduce the distribution of posts that its systems deem likely to be disinformation, and limit distribution of live video
related to the election, reports Bloomberg.
Further, Facebook said that once a winner of the presidential race is official, it will display prominent notices to head off further false
victory claims.
“On the results, we will rely on a majority opinion from Reuters as well as independent decision desks at major media outlets, including ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, NBC
News, CNN and the Associated Press to determine when a presidential winner is projected,” Facebook said in a statement. “We will then show the candidate’s name in notifications at
the top of Facebook and Instagram.”
That messaging will also appear on candidates’ posts, replacing the current message stating that votes are still being counted.