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Facebook To Ban Misinformation On Voting In Upcoming US Elections (reuters.com)

"Facebook will ban false information about voting requirements and fake reports of violence or long lines at polling stations in the run-up to and during next month's U.S. midterm elections," reports Reuters. The latest efforts are to reduce voter manipulation across its platform. From the report: The world's largest online social network, with 1.5 billion daily users, has stopped short of banning all false or misleading posts, something that Facebook has shied away from as it would likely increase its expenses and leave it open to charges of censorship. The ban on false information about voting methods, set to be announced later on Monday, comes six weeks after Senator Ron Wyden asked Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg how Facebook would counter posts aimed at suppressing votes, such as by telling certain users they could vote by text, a hoax that has been used to reduce turnout in the past.

The information on voting methods becomes one of the few areas in which falsehoods are prohibited on Facebook, a policy enforced by what the company calls "community standards" moderators, although application of its standards has been uneven. It will not stop the vast majority of untruthful posts about candidates or other election issues.

26 of 245 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Going to ban weather reports also? by postbigbang · · Score: 2

    Open can of worms.

    Insert hands.

    That's already Facebook. This will be uproarious. The AI anti-voter engines will be in full prime by Nov 8th. The analytics will be poised to do their best to achieve their algorithmic goals of domination, or just simply slipping past the desire finish.

    While I wish them luck, I don't think this ends well.

    --
    ---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
  2. There's only one way by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Ban politics from Facebook. Totally.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  3. Re:Everybody knows by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Listening to NPR last week about voting registration, etc, one of the commentators said that she was going to tell all her Republican relatives that election day had been changed to Wednesday.
    All of the other panelists agreed that this was acceptable, and a good idea.

  4. Re:Going to ban weather reports also? by Plugh · · Score: 2

    So, if Wikileaks or a similar group publishes thousands of emails from a political candidate's server, is that "misinformation?" Or ... "*unauthorized* information?"

  5. Re:Who has only one polling center by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Kind of seems like we have the opposite question here - what kind of ghost town do you live in that you have only a single polling center you can use?

    States like Texas, Georgia, etc have been closing polling places in minority neighborhoods. This is why, every single election, the longest lines you see are in minority communities.

    I mean, come on, SuperKendall. You must know better than this. It's not like Republicans have been hiding their voter suppression efforts. How do you not know this stuff?

    https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/r...

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  6. Hope it apples both ways by liquid_schwartz · · Score: 2

    I hope that the conflation of illegal immigrant vs legal immigrant data gets policed. That debate has seen enough falsely trying to characterize illegals, who largely are bad news almost regardless of metric, with legal ones, who are largely good along most metrics.

  7. Vote via Interpretive Dance by mentil · · Score: 2

    such as by telling certain users they could vote by text, a hoax that has been used to reduce turnout in the past.
    Someone who would fall for that is someone I probably wouldn't want voting in the first place. Voting via text is so insecure on so many levels it boggles the mind.

    --
    Corruption is convincing someone that the selfless ideal is the same as their selfish ideal.
  8. I'm glad Facebook censors, Hope they do more! by DallasTruaxxx · · Score: 4, Insightful

    “When you tear out a man's tongue, you are not proving him a liar, you're only telling the world that you fear what he might say.” George R.R. Martin, A Clash of Kings. No more lies, no more 'shadow banning' no more pretense. Facebook is showing their true colors. Now that people have seen the kind of values that Facebook demonstrates, they can make their own choices to continue to associate on the Facebook platform, or not.

  9. Re:Who has only one polling center by SuperKendall · · Score: 2, Informative

    States like Texas, Georgia, etc have been closing polling places in minority neighborhoods.

    So all the more important to get line length info so you can go when it's at a lull...

    However fewer places alone does not mean they do not have multiple choices still. For instance, from an article on one of the worse reductions (in Arizona):

    Phoenixâ(TM)s Maricopa County, the largest in the state, reduced the number of polling places by 70 percent from 2012 to 2016, from 200 to just 60.

    I don't know if you know numbers at all, but 60 is quite a lot larger than 1. Since the post I was responding to was all about single verses multiple polling locations, I'm afraid all we can infer is that you don't know that 60 is larger than 1.... that would match with the typical liberal failure to understand numbers generally.

    It's not like Republicans have been hiding their voter suppression efforts.

    It's always amusing to me when a liberal fascist such as yourself complains about election fraud on one hand and then turns right back around and attempts to block anything that contributes to election integrity.

    If you really cared you would go to one of the counties with reduced polling stations and help transport people to the polls with the shortest lines. But I am pretty sure come Nov 2 you will be sitting on your ass whining on Slashdot instead. Oh I will be also, but I don't make any pretense to care about how counties choose to manage polling locations since I don't like to comment without having so depth to my understanding, unlike your knee-jerk reactionary posts based on your own non-understanding of complex issues...

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  10. Facebook to ban misinformation by viperidaenz · · Score: 2

    But not all misinformation, only that which steers people away from their own political views.

  11. Re:Going to ban weather reports also? by CohibaVancouver · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Hey Anonymous Coward, which *facts* in this Snopes story are wrong? Be specific.

    https://www.snopes.com/fact-ch...

  12. Re:Who has only one polling center by PopeRatzo · · Score: 3, Informative

    So all the more important to get line length info so you can go when it's at a lull...

    So, more important to get authentic line length info. Someone posting from Bulgaria about line length in Council Bluffs is probably trying to suppress the vote.

    Phoenixâ(TM)s Maricopa County, the largest in the state, reduced the number of polling places by 70 percent from 2012 to 2016, from 200 to just 60.

    In Maricopa County, as in all of Arizona, you are assigned a polling place. You can't just show up at whichever one you want on election day.

    You would know this if you were a voter in the US.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  13. That is a luddite view of the matter by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    If an account based in Minsk reports a long line in a community 25 miles outside of Topeka,

    Why is that impossible? I can get traffic conditions in Minsk from my home in the U.S., why is it impossible to fathom that accounts even in other countries could be providing real time monitoring of polling traffic?

    Would you say the same thing about an account in NYC giving polling line times anywhere in the country? That is just as plausible to work and no-one would bat an eye if the New York times were providing that information, yet it's not spatially close either.

    How are people who read a tech site like Slashdot not able to figure this out?

    Indeed, how IS it that someone on Slashdot cannot understand how information can be accessed globally now?

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  14. Fact-checkers are just as biased... by mi · · Score: 5, Funny

    we have veriabile soruce of informations like Snopes [sic]

    This joke is over 2 years old, but remains funny:

    • Hillary Clinton: "Sky is blue".
    • Fact-checkers: Mostly True.
    • Donald Trump: "Sky is blue".
    • Fact-checkers: sky is usually black at night, sometimes grey during the day, and red at dusk and dawn — we rate Donald Trump's claim as Mostly False.
    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
    1. Re:Fact-checkers are just as biased... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I think you got the names mixed up there. Clinton was under far more scrutiny and was held to a far higher standard than Trump was. Trump's whole gimmick was that everything he says is such an obvious falsehood or exaggeration you can't possibly take any of it seriously, it's all just "political hype" or a joke.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Fact-checkers are just as biased... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      That claim doesn't seem to be on Snopes and I can't find an archived copy. Fake news?

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    3. Re:Fact-checkers are just as biased... by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2

      Ah, okay, fake news.

      Here is the Trump quote:

      Trump, Sept. 5: You see whatâ(TM)s going on with her emails. Itâ(TM)s a disgrace. Itâ(TM)s a disgusting situation where she pretends like she doesnâ(TM)t know. I mean, she had her emails â" 33,000 emails â" acid washed. The most sophisticated person never heard about acid washing. Acid washing is a very expensive process and thatâ(TM)s to really get rid of them.

      This has been widely reported although I couldn't immediately find a video of him saying it.

      He appears to be confused by the name of the "BleachBit" software that was run on the server. In any case it's not an expensive process, the software is free and requires no special skills to use. Clearly many sophisticated people have heard of this software, it's a quite popular as an alternative to CCleaner.

      It's also false to claim that Clinton had the emails destroyed in this manner. Her staff archived work related emails and then asked that the server's retention period be reduced to 60 days. The person at the hosting company who was supposed to do it didn't. When those emails were subpoenaed he panicked and used the the BleachBit software to erase them. There is no indication that Clinton knew about this at the time, much less ordered it.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
  15. Ministry of Truth by mi · · Score: 2

    Facebook will ban false information

    So, FB are trying to be the Ministry of (Current) Truth. I would fully support the ban on lying — if only a way to reliably distinguish truth from lies (outside Mathematics) could be devised even in theory.

    --
    In Soviet Washington the swamp drains you.
  16. Re:Going to ban weather reports also? by sexconker · · Score: 2

    A private business can prohibit anything it wants.

    No, it can't. There are laws requiring them to not discriminate, laws requiring them to not punish workers work going on strike, not retaliate against workers who report crimes, etc. Further, private businesses that are generally open to the public can't refuse to serve people of a certain race, sex, etc. In some locations, political views are protected as well. A private business that is generally open to the public, or a public entity like a city, also can't hire some other private entity to do something like "manage the city streets and sidewalks" and then have that entity ban people from the sidewalks outside their businesses.

    That is not censorship.

    Of course it is. It doesn't matter whether or not the government is doing the censoring, it's still censorship.

  17. Re: Everybody knows by YrWrstNtmr · · Score: 4, Informative

    Listen here:
    https://www.npr.org/podcasts/3...

    Oct 12, Another View.
    AV Round Table: VOTE! - skip ahead to 14:30.

  18. Re:It's called a provisional ballot, and works in by PopeRatzo · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yes you can, you just end up casting a provisional ballot [azcentral.com] if you do not go to your assigned polling place. You can still vote at any polling place in your county...

    Provisional ballots are generally not counted.

    And the ballot you cast provisionally must be the ballot for the precinct you are from. They don't keep ballots for all precincts at all polling places. So unless you are in the rare state that will send you the ballot by mail ahead of election day, the only way you're going to get the correct ballot is by going to your assigned precinct's polling place. If they could get their assigned ballot from their assigned polling place, then they wouldn't need a provisional ballot, would they?

    Yes, you could cast a provisional ballot, but it would not be counted unless it was the ballot from the precinct you were assigned. That's law. Also, there are several states that do not allow provisional ballots at all.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  19. Re:They already watch abroad by SuperKendall · · Score: 2

    Do you hear yourself? You're saying that an American company, seeking to report on lines at polling places in Southern Indiana, for an audience in Southern Indiana, would engage the services of someone in "Russia, India or China" to do so.

    Yes, that is because I am a professional programmer where such things are common as dirt. What on earth are you doing on Slashdot if you do not know that?

    Any feed, coming from anywhere outside the United States for any reason, should not be allowed to report on live election data on Facebook for local consumption.

    But that makes no sense, Shen technology allows anyone to accurately monitor and report. Why the limitation? That just seems nuts.

    It's not as big a technical challenge as you're making out. If the Guardian website for international news knows well enough to display a weather report for my zip code, thousands of miles away, I'm guessing Facebook can figure it out too.

    Sigh. The challenge is not knowing where they are. The challenge is coming up with a valid reason to block what can easily be accurate information from anywhere on the globe. Why do you want to block valid reporting? Because that is what you are asking for, based on location alone which is a totally invalid measurement for accuracy.

    I'll let you have the last response here since you seem insanely bigoted against foreign countries and workers there. I'm afraid I can only take so much bigotry in one evening, since I consider all people around the world just be just as potentially reliable as anyone local. Living as you do, fearing others outside your own city even, it is not healthy for you in the long run.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  20. Re:Wrong they are counted, just last by PopeRatzo · · Score: 2

    They are if they matter so what is the difference?

    So votes should only be counted if they "matter"?

    You wonder why I question whether you live in the US. Well, there it is.

    --
    You are welcome on my lawn.
  21. Re: Everybody knows by sweepkick · · Score: 2

    Let's just set aside the fact that this was an obvious joke for now. They didn't say anything about Republicans. They said "racist relatives".

    You guys need to stop with the "persecuted victim" act... it's wearing pretty thin.

    Happy holidays,

    SK

  22. Re:Going to ban weather reports also? by jbengt · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I could care less about Trumps inauguration attendance as it proves nothing of importance.

    It proves that Trump is an inveterate liar.
    That's important.

  23. Re:Who decides? by cascadingstylesheet · · Score: 2

    Well, there are web sites already claiming that "Snopes" is staffed by leftists and that no one should believe anything it says. The war over what the truth is has already begun.

    The story being told is "don't trust anyone on the internet unless they agree with your gut feelings!"

    Snopes is staffed by leftists ... which doesn't make it completely useless, but it does mean that when it comes to gray areas, benefit of the doubt, and so forth, they are slanted a certain way.

    As with anything run by human beings (or by automated processes created/trained by human beings).