Facebook 'did not live up to its promises to protect the U.S. elections,' report says


Facebook "did not live up to its promises to protect the U.S. elections" in 2020 and could have prevented pages that shared misinformation from amassing about 10 billion views, a new report found.
The advocacy group Avaaz in a report found that 267 pages and groups with a combined following of 32 million users spread "violence-glorifying content in the heat of the 2020 election," with 68.7 percent of these groups having "Boogaloo, QAnon or militia-aligned names" and posting content related to the extremist movements. "Despite clear violations of Facebook's policies," Avaaz said, 118 of those groups remain active on the platform, and they have almost 27 million followers.
Avaaz also found that the 100 most popular false or misleading stories related to the 2020 presidential election drew around 162 million views on Facebook, and 24 percent of these stories didn't come with a warning label from Facebook. Additionally, Avaaz said that "if the platform had acted earlier," it "could have stopped 10.1 billion estimated views of content from top-performing pages that repeatedly shared misinformation over the eight months" prior to the election.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
"This report shows clearly how Facebook did not live up to its promises to protect the U.S. elections," Avaaz wrote, alleging the data points to Facebook's "role in providing fertile ground for and incentivizing a larger ecosystem of misinformation and toxicity, that we argue contributed to radicalizing millions and helped in creating the conditions in which the storming of the Capitol building became a reality."
Facebook is pushing back on Avaaz's report, with spokesperson Andy Stone telling Time it "distorts the serious work we've been doing to fight violent extremism and misinformation on our platform" and uses "flawed methodology to make people think that just because a Page shares a piece of fact-checked content, all the content on that Page is problematic." Stone added that Facebook's enforcement of its policies "isn't perfect" but that "we're always improving it while also working with outside experts to make sure that our policies remain in the right place."
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Brendan worked as a culture writer at The Week from 2018 to 2023, covering the entertainment industry, including film reviews, television recaps, awards season, the box office, major movie franchises and Hollywood gossip. He has written about film and television for outlets including Bloody Disgusting, Showbiz Cheat Sheet, Heavy and The Celebrity Cafe.
-
ICE agents take down Lady Justice | June 21 editorial cartoons
Cartoons Saturday’s political cartoons include ICE, Donald Trump as a lion tamer, and ordering from the Bible
-
5 editorial cartoons about ICE raids
Cartoons Political cartoonists take on ICE raids, harvesting Big Macs for Donald Trump, and what to do when Stephen Miller shows up at the front door
-
Grilled radicchio with caper and anchovy sauce recipe
The Week Recommends Smoky twist on classic Italian flavours is perfect to grill, drizzle and devour
-
Economists fear US inflation data less reliable
speed read The Labor Department is collecting less data for its consumer price index due to staffing shortages
-
Crypto firm Coinbase hacked, faces SEC scrutiny
Speed Read The Securities and Exchange Commission has also been investigating whether Coinbase misstated its user numbers in past disclosures
-
Starbucks baristas strike over dress code
speed read The new uniform 'puts the burden on baristas' to buy new clothes, said a Starbucks Workers United union delegate
-
Warren Buffet announces surprise retirement
speed read At the annual meeting of Berkshire Hathaway, the billionaire investor named Vice Chairman Greg Abel his replacement
-
Trump calls Amazon's Bezos over tariff display
Speed Read The president was not happy with reports that Amazon would list the added cost from tariffs alongside product prices
-
Markets notch worst quarter in years as new tariffs loom
Speed Read The S&P 500 is on track for its worst month since 2022 as investors brace for Trump's tariffs
-
Tesla Cybertrucks recalled over dislodging panels
Speed Read Almost every Cybertruck in the US has been recalled over a stainless steel panel that could fall off
-
Crafting emporium Joann is going out of business
Speed Read The 82-year-old fabric and crafts store will be closing all 800 of its stores