Zuckerberg warns of 'civil unrest' around US polls, assures 'we've taken additional steps'

With US presidential elections being less than five days away, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has raised concerns over the possibility of civil unrest triggered around the November 3 election. He also said that the upcoming biggest political event in the United States will be “a test” for the social network. In a statement on October 30, Zuckerberg said “I’m worried” about the nation which is highly divisive and the results of the election could take several days or weeks to complete counting, and thus, there is “risk of civil unrest” across the US.

While adding that social networking platforms will have to take unprecedented measures, Facebook chief enlisted the steps taken by his company. Zuckerberg also described the safeguards put to tackle misinformation and voter suppression at the social network with 2.45 billion users. However, his remarks came just a day after he along with CEO’s of Google and Twitter were grilled during US Senate hearing to reform an internet law and hold tech companies accountable for the regulation of content on their platforms. 

Mark Zuckerberg said, “I'm worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days or weeks to be finalized, there is a risk of civil unrest across the country. Given this, companies like ours need to go well beyond what we've done before.”

“That's why we've taken additional steps to help people register to vote however they're comfortable, to clear up confusion about how this election will work, and reduce the chance of uncertainty and unrest,” he added. 

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Facebook has blocked new political, social issue ads 

Touting Facebook’s “largest voting information campaign in American history” that helped millions of people to register, Zuckerberg said that as of October 27, the company has blocked new political, social issue advertisements to run on the platform. He said that California-based company is taking this step because he believes it is the “best antidote” to hate speech in the final days of US Election 2020. However, Democrats and Republicans have complained separately was undermining their respective campaign efforts by introducing the ban in the week before the elections. 

The Facebook chief said, “we've blocked new political and social issue ads from running the week ahead of Election Day and after the election. We're doing this because while I generally believe the best antidote to bad speech is more speech, in the final days of an election there may simply not be enough time to contest new claims.”

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