Real Facebook Oversight Board Issues Seven Urgent Demands of Meta to Protect 2022 US Election

Urgent Action Needed By Meta to Safeguard 2022 U.S. Election, Halt Flood of Disinformation and Extremist Content

18 October — With increasing reports showing that Meta is unprepared and unwilling to take the steps necessary to safeguard the 2022 U.S. Midterm elections, the Real Facebook Oversight Board is urgently calling on policymakers and advocates to act, and on Meta to enact the following measures months before election day -

1. Prioritize credible news and information in Newsfeed by boosting the algorithm tied to “news ecosystem quality” in order to downrank hate and disinformation, as Meta did across its platforms in the weeks following the 2020 election.
2. Ensure the Facebook Civic and Integrity Teams recommendations for the 2022 election are implemented, including dialing back reliance on downstream MSI (meaningful social interactions).
3. Do not approve any advertising that delegitimizes election outcomes at a national, state or local level.
4. Remove all posts that incite election violence and ban violative accounts
5. With reports showing that Meta’s platforms are still flooded with disinformation in Spanish and other non-English languages, Meta must make an immediate, urgent investment in non-English language moderation of election content, using qualified moderators rather than relying on AI.
6. Let academic researchers back in, allowing outside independent scholars to monitor Facebook’s content and algorithms around the 2022 election.
7. As we saw between the 2020 U.S. election and the Jan. 6th insurrection, violative content about the electoral process and democracy writ large does not have an “end” time after an election occurs. We urge Meta to keep election-integrity efforts in place through at least the first quarter of 2023 and we call on the company to announce its timeline and plans for the 2024 election. Meta should prioritize review of possible harassment of election workers.

Meta has shown through its “break glass” actions in 2020 that it can act aggressively to limit election denial on its platforms, if it so chooses. For democracy and our future, we urgently demand that Meta act.

Real Facebook Oversight Board members are available for interviews. Statements do not reflect the individual positions of all Real Facebook Oversight Board Members. Contact us at media@the-citizens.com.