Facebook Announces Task Force to Fight 2020 Election Interference on its Platform

Facebook has launched a new task force that will be closely monitoring its platform for any instances of interference in the 2020 presidential campaign. The task force was formed following pressure from critics that the social media platform did not do enough to limit outside manipulation during the 2016 presidential election. 

As momentum continues to build as we lead up to the primaries later this year, this move marks an important step by Facebook to prove to the public that they are capable of responsibly handling customer data and limiting the spread of fake news. 

Some changes coming to the platform in the coming months will include an outright ban on advertisements that try to persuade users on how to vote. It will also ban any content that is aimed at providing misinformation to users about candidates and the upcoming census. Policies regarding offensive material and content moderation will also be reviewed and tweaked to close any loopholes that previously allowed such posts. 

Facebook counts over 2.3 billion users on its platform, and while human moderators will be present on this newly formed tasked force, the use of artificial intelligence will be key in monitoring the massive amount of data that is poured onto the site daily. By utilizing both a human and AI element in the reviewal process, Facebook hopes to better limit the number of cases that are wrongly penalized due to incomplete or incorrect reviewals. 

This announcement has been met with skepticism from many critics, all of which cited the numerous instances that the company has shown to improperly protect consumer data and displayed a bias towards certain groups and individuals. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sees the formation of this task force as a sort of independent body that will help enhance the company’s accountability by creating what he calls “some separation of powers.”