This story is part of 2020 elections, CNET's coverage of the November vote preparations.
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have grappled with waves of misinformation amid a tough and highly competitive presidential election scheduled for Saturday morning Democrat Joe Biden.
Among the challenges the social networks faced: fake accounts masquerading as credible news organizations falsely naming the election, fake reports of Sharpies used to suppress votes, and live streams broadcasting false results . President Donald Trump has also used social media to make unfounded claims that the election was stolen from him, again causing major headaches for companies.
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Continue reading: How to spot misinformation on election day
The three major social networks have all set guidelines for dealing with misinformation. Actions range from adding a label to questionable information to deleting posts and banning users. She was concerned with the choice.
All social networks flag questionable posts and remove untruths if the content has the potential to incite violence. Facebook has a more straightforward approach to posting from politicians than Twitterwhich has limited the reach of Trump's tweets. YouTube applies a warning to all election-related videos and search results that the results may not be final.
Here are some of the top cases of misinformation and social media response.
- By far the biggest challenge for the social network was handling Trump's posts. One post late on the presidential election night claimed without evidence that he was "tall" and that his political opponents were "trying to steal the election". Facebook labeled the post with information that the number of votes was still in progress and referred users to an election information center.
- Facebook added a label under a video shared on Trump's page in which the president falsely claimed, "Honestly, we won this election." Trump made the comment during a speech late on election night.
- The social network joined a massive group called "STOP THE STEAL" which spread false claims that Democrats were trying to wipe out the elections. The group had more than 364,000 members.
- According to BuzzFeed News, Facebook recommended live video to users with election misinformation and state-controlled Russian media content. The company pulled down some of the videos.
- Twitter described Trump's false claims of election rigging as "controversial" and possibly "misleading". It also obscured the president's tweet, forcing users to click through to see it. Users may dislike the tweet and only share it if they weigh it with their own comment.
- Twitter then labeled and covered up several Trump tweets and retweets, including one that read "STOP THE FRAUD!" There is no evidence of electoral fraud.
- Twitter labeled and covered up a series of four Trump tweets on Saturday morning. The tweets alleging misconduct in the vote for no reason count in several nearby states.
- Twitter allowed a clip of Trump's false claim to victory during a television appearance on election night to remain unlabeled on duty. Twitter said the video shared by the media did not violate its guidelines. The video shared by the Trump campaign account has more than 22 million views.
- Twitter has banned a group of accounts posing as legitimate news organizations. Some of the reports that mimicked the Associated Press and CNN spread false reports that Democrat Joe Biden won the election. The groups seemed to be working together.
Youtube
- The Google-powered video sharing service added a label under the video in which Trump falsely claimed victory on election night. The video has more than 414,000 views on Trump's channel. (The label is not just intended for misinformation, however. It appears under all election-related videos and search results.)
- YouTube removed several videos showing fake election results live for hours before polls closed anywhere in the country. The video streams, some of which were running ads that made money for the account holders, were viewed by thousands of people before they were removed. One of the channels with a stream appeared to have nearly 1.5 million subscribers.
- YouTube has been criticized for refusing to remove two videos from One America News, a far-right news organization, that falsely declare victory for Trump. Despite the false claims in the videos, YouTube said it was not breaking the platform's rules, which focus more closely on voter suppression. However, the platform no longer displays ads in the videos, thereby draining the revenue network.