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Facebook to add labels to posts about voting from presidential candidates

16 July 2020
 Dan Ackermann

Facebook announced Thursday that it will add labels to all posts from presidential candidates and federally-elected officials that mention voting or ballots, regardless of whether they contain misinformation.

Why it matters: It's the tech giant's response to scrutiny that it doesn't do enough to tackle voter suppression on its platform. Earlier this year, Facebook — unlike Twitter — did not take action against posts from President Trump that included false information about mail-in voting.

  • The labels, rolling out today, aren't a judgment of whether the posts themselves are accurate, but are instead meant to signal to Facebook users that they can get the most accurate information about voting by leading them to an official government website.
  • Posts that specifically reference voting by mail will link to an official government website on absentee voting.

The state of play: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the new policy last month after complaints from civil rights groups and Joe Biden's campaign over the tech giant's lack of attention towards voter suppression efforts on its platform, especially by Trump.

  • The social network has since been caught up in a sweeping advertising boycott.
  • Zuckerberg has said repeatedly that he doesn’t want to remove newsworthy posts from elected officials, but would rather let users to make up their minds about the content by labeling posts that violate its rules.

The big picture: The effort is part of a larger initiative by Facebook to help register users to vote.

  • The company wants to help 4 million people register to vote in the 2020 election through labels and notifications that push people to a newly-created voter information center that provides accurate voter information.

What's next: Facebook says it plans to extend such voter initiatives to its other apps, Instagram and Messenger, soon.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.