Does Facebook fact-check political ads?
Employees said Facebook 'allows politicians to weaponize' the platform in a 2019 letter
Facebook is reportedly considering banning political ads amid ad boycotts and controversy surrounding hate speech on the platform. FOX Business’ Susan Li with more.
Facebook generally does not fact-check political advertisements published to its website, according to its policies.
Founder Mark Zuckerberg and other Facebook executives have repeatedly stated that they do not believe Facebook should be the "arbiter of truth" and users should be able to make their own conclusions about what politicians post.
"Posts and ads from politicians are generally not subjected to fact-checking. In evaluating when this applies we ask our fact-checking partners to look at politicians at every level. This means candidates running for office, current officeholders - and, by extension, many of their cabinet appointees - along with political parties and their leaders," Facebook's policy reads.
Facebook fact-checks (Facebook.com)
In some cases, the website asks its third-party fact-checkers to "use their expertise and judgment to determine whether an individual is a politician, like in the case of a part-time elected official," the policy reads.
The site does, however, allow fact-checks on other kinds of ads, including those from former politicians and general posts from politicians.
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"There will be some instances where a false or partly false rating from our fact-checking partners will affect politicians. When a politician shares a specific piece of content - i.e., a link to an article, video or photo created by someone else that has been previously debunked on Facebook - we will demote that content, display a warning and reject its inclusion in ads," the platform's policy states.
FACEBOOK IS CONSIDERING A BAN ON POLITICAL ADS: REPORT
Facebook has come under the scrutiny of members of Congress and its employees for the policy who argue it is harmful to leave misleading political advertisements up as they are without any kind of fact-check label.
Employees said Facebook "doesn’t protect voices, but instead allows politicians to weaponize our platform by targeting people who believe that content posted by political figures is trustworthy," in a 2019 letter to Zuckerberg.
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Employees and activist organizations also argued against the company's decision not to fact-check or remove some inflammatory posts from President Trump, particularly one about mail-in ballot fraud that Twitter decided to label with a fact-check.
The company on Tuesday added a fact-check label to Trump's ballot post and said in a June 26 blog post that it will start flagging content it previously wouldn't have if it was deemed "newsworthy," including posts from political figures.