In 2020, Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated a whole bunch of thousands and thousands to support election integrity efforts. The billionaire couple doesn’t appear to have continued their donations this cycle.
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Just six days before the 2024 presidential election, Facebook is running a whole bunch of ads from pages that falsely claim that the upcoming election may very well be rigged or postponed. Facebook parent company Meta’s ad library shows that the pages behind the ads paid the corporate greater than $1 million to run them. They have racked up a bill of greater than $350,000 for the ads they ran last week.
One of the ads encompasses a stylized image of Vice President Kamala Harris with devil horns and a burning American flag behind her. Other ads feature images of Harris and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz with post-apocalyptic scenes, in addition to images of Walz and President Biden mixed with images of pharmaceuticals spilling from bottles. One shows an apparently AI-generated image of a smiling Harris in a hospital room, preparing to provide a shot to a screaming child. Another features images of anti-vaxxer and third-party candidate RFK Jr. Some of the ads query whether Harris will remain within the race and suggest that America is “heading toward another civil war.”
Screenshot, Meta Ad Library / Forbes
Meta’s election rules prohibit posts that contain “misinformation about the dates, locations, times, and methods of voting” and “misinformation about whether or not a candidate is running,” and its promoting rules prohibit ads that “improve the legitimacy of an upcoming election in Ask a Question”. or ongoing elections.”
Many of the ads direct viewers to a page where they should purchase writings by Jim Rickards, a fringe economist turned conspiracy theorist and proponent of the New World Order conspiracy theory. Others direct people to a page that falsely claims that a “university party” will win the election for Big Pharma.”
Meta spokesman Ryan Daniels said: “We review the ads and will remove any ads that violate our policies.” Rickards didn’t reply to a request for comment by press time.
Forbes identified the false ads through the Meta Ad Library, a live repository of ads running on the corporate’s platforms that contain details about political advertisers and their spending. Forbes No parallel ads were present in Google’s ad library. TikTok and (In a previous life, I held content policy positions at Facebook and Spotify.)
Meta has a protracted history of misinformation about elections. In 2016, Russia’s Internet Research Agency used each ads and “organic” posts on Facebook to control and divide US voters and steer them towards the candidacy of Donald Trump. In 2020 it was Facebook and WhatsApp widespread by disgruntled supporters of former President Trump to spread “Stop the Steal” conspiracy theories and orchestrate the attack on the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Since 2021, Meta drastically reduced the variety of political posts shown to users – which might increase the effectiveness of paid political ads in reaching Facebook users with a candidate or party’s message. This yr, Vice President Kamala Harris did it dramatically exaggerated former President Donald Trump on Facebook ads.
In 2020, Facebook owner Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan donated greater than $400 million to nonpartisan election integrity groups, including the Center for Election Innovation and Research and the Center for Tech and Civic Life. The groups deal with improving election infrastructure and don’t endorse candidates.
In 2024, a publishing company co-founded by Donald Trump Jr. and MAGA influencer Sergio Gor was founded began selling an illustrated book The book says of Zuckerberg: “We are watching him closely, and if he does anything illegal this time, he will spend the rest of his life in prison.” Trump has it too called Zuckerberg an “enemy of the people.”,” And said that his newfound resistance to a ban on TikTok (which he first tried to ban in 2020) stems from his desire to stop Meta from becoming more powerful.
Zuckerberg doesn’t appear to have continued his election integrity campaign in 2024. However, he did Call Trump a “badass” after the previous president survived an assassination attempt in July. Trump claimed that Zuckerberg called him and told him that he “couldn’t vote for a Democrat” within the upcoming election. Meta didn’t deny the decision, but said Zuckerberg didn’t say anything about how he would vote.
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