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

Facebook
(Image credit: DENIS CHARLET/AFP via Getty Images)

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.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

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.

Sign up
Explore More
Brendan Morrow

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.