In the world of social media, Facebook has taken a forefront position as the largest and most influential platform for sharing and exchange of news, information, and ideas among individuals, and even entire countries. Recognizing the vital role that Facebook plays in communication and news-sharing, it’s no surprise that it’s bumped heads with political issues and seen immense growth in political and election-based content.
Although Facebook has since sought to change its policies surrounding politics, the platform has already played an interesting and complex role in the political sphere — and it’s showing no signs of slowing down.
What’s Facebook’s History with Political Content and Misinformation?
From the beginning, Facebook and its features have been ripe for political implications and influences. During the Arab Spring in 2010, activists and citizens used Facebook to have their voices heard and to raise global awareness of their cause. As a platform, Facebook was seen as democratizing media and allowing popular power to emerge and grow regardless of prior restraints.
In the same year, the U.S. Supreme Court also made a landmark ruling on campaign finance, granting corporations the rights to freely participate in political activity and influencing, and the spending of money to do so. This ruling however, had major implications, changing the landscape of political media and campaigns to come.
With increasing political activity and spending, shady figures quickly infiltrated and began to misuse the platform to push agendas, spread misinformation, and manipulate opinions. Coupled with Facebook’s vague policy regulations and algorithms that considered political content as “not as important” or not newsworthy”, misinformation and fake news began to spread rapidly on Facebook. As the platform grew and saw influxes of political content, Facebook started to struggle with handling the content and misinformation that followed after.
Facebook’s Stance on Political Advertising and Misinformation
In a statement released in 2017, Mark Zuckerberg noted that Facebook did not want to be seen as the “arbiters of truth” and wanted to steer clear of political censorship. Instead of suppressing political content, Facebook began to gradually shift its stance on political news and advertising by introducing fact-checking policies, hand-curating trending news stories, and streamlining their materials and terms of service on political advertising.
By 2018, Facebook also kept track of accounts that violated the platform’s policies on misinformation, and even introduced a system of identifiers and warnings to caution users of false and misleading content.
As with many of its policies, Facebook also aimed to keep transparency and divulge details of political advertisements on their platform. By disclosing the funders of political ads, this helps citizens to develop a more in-depth understanding of the non-partisan news being circulated and shared in their feed.
Though Facebook continues to look for policies to combat the spread of misinformation and fake news, it cannot be denied that politics and political ads continue to be a prominent part of the platform.
Facebook’s Impact on Political Campaigns
The influence of Facebook on politics has had a hand in the success of numerous recent political campaigns. From propelling awareness to garnering votes, Facebook’s major importance to political campaigns has been seen in countries like India, France, the United States and the United Kingdom. In India, the 2014 Lok Sabha elections saw a huge increase in political content on Facebook and subsequent campaigns tailor-made for the digital age.
In the United States, Donald Trump’s election campaign leveraged cutting edge digital ads on Facebook, resulting in a successful win. In France and the UK, political campaigns also tapped into the power of a younger generation to help traditionally conservative political parties get elected into power.
The Benefits of Facebook for Politics
Despite the issues of misinformation, Facebook does have numerous benefits for the political sphere and news-sharing.
Rapid Access
Facebook provides a direct platform for both politicians and political organizations to reach a large and engaged audience. With the internet and mobile penetration in Asia, Africa and Latin America, more people around the world have easy access to political news and power to make a difference.
Organization and Reach
Facebook also allows campaigns to easily organize and target people within their reach by making use of its various features, such as sending personal messages, creating event pages, and much more. Through new and improved algorithms, Facebook can further strategically place ads in the news feed and instantly target audiences. This makes campaigns more streamlined and organized, allowing the timely sharing of news, videos, and projects to the right people.
Cheap and Effective
For smaller or independent campaigns, utilizing Facebook can be much cheaper than going through traditional media channels such as television, radio, and newspapers. This allows political campaigns to reach a much wider audience without having to break the bank.
Since 2016, both politicians and media-savvy individuals have also capitalized on the appeal of “live” video-streaming. The ease and immediacy of live video-streaming on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter made it an attractive alternative for connecting with potential voters, and even for triggering the chain of events for political movements such as the U.S. Women’s March.
The Drawbacks of Political Content on Facebook
The influx of political content on Facebook has not gone unnoticed in the public eye, and there are still numerous issues left to address.
Exposing Ideological Views
With its political tactics and algorithms, Facebook also runs the risk of tampering with democratic values by swaying opinions and manipulating news. There is fear of Facebook being used to push and validate predetermined political narratives, thus leading to a biased and limited version of news.
Misinformation and Fake-News
Facebook is also recognized for its role in the spread of fake news and false information. This, coupled with their efforts to connect with the right demographics and target ads to specific audiences, leads to users in certain demographics being targeted with exaggerated and misleading news stories that are purposefully made to reinforce their views.
Information Overload
The internet and social media also make it much easier for politicians and political campaigns to bombard users with news. With little speed bumps or checks, this can lead to users feeling overwhelmed and unable to effectively and accurately assess the news that they receive.
Concerns of Facebook’s Policies
Facebook had undertaken serious steps to address the growing problem of fake news, political influences, and campaigns. However, the introduction of new policies and guidelines have also generated a lot of criticism and concerns about possible biases, vested interests, and transparency.
For example, many have questioned the selection of fact-checkers involved in sifting through the news and making decisions on whether the news is accurate or false. This process is not a transparent one, leaving people unsure as to how the news and content on their feeds is being filtered and evaluated.
Despite its controversies, Facebook is still a primary platform for political discussion, news-sharing, and advertisement, and its role within the political sphere will continue to evolve. The growth and interest in politics and news-sharing within the platform prove how much potential it has — and how much power it can still wield.
This combined with its ability to tailor communications and target specific demographics means it can be an immense tool for political campaigns, so long as there are proper and updated policies in place to make sure it doesn’t become synonymous with manipulation and the propagation of fake news. What ultimately matters is how Facebook works through together to strike a balance between open communication and censorship, accuracy and accountability, and the political and democratic values its users live by.