Facebook and its photo service Instagram have announced that they will show users a message at the top of their feeds and new labels when a US presidential winner has been projected.
The notifications and labels include a link to Facebook's voting information center and indicate who projected the winner. Facebook and Instagram will add labels that indicate the projected winner among the submissions from candidate President Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden. The notification that appears at the top of a user's news feed also includes a timestamp.
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Facebook said in an email that it was using a majority opinion from Reuters and major media outlets like ABC News, CBS News, Fox News, NBC News, CNN, and the Associated Press to determine when to forecast a presidential winner.
With Biden in the battlefield states of Pennsylvania and Georgia, the former vice president is getting closer to the 270 Electoral College votes he needs to win, according to the Associated Press.
Social media sites have fought an onslaught of Choice misinformation this week, including early victory claims and unfounded Trump election fraud allegations.
On Thursday, Facebook closed a group called Stop the theft with more than 364,000 members making unsubstantiated claims that the Democrats tried to steal the elections. Facebook removed the group because some of the members incited violence and organized real events like rallies. The group founded by the conservative organization Women for America First accused Facebook of political prejudice, but the social network has repeatedly denied such allegations.
Facebook is taking further steps to combat misinformation. The company downgrades content that contains misinformation and limits the distribution of live voting video. And when users share a flagged post, Facebook will encourage them to visit the social network's voting information center.
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