How are social media preparing for the election? With many guardrails off
After Nov. 5, political ads on Facebook and Instagram are set to resume. That's a change from 2020, when Facebook preemptively banned political advertising after polls closed. Google, meanwhile, will once again block election ads after Nov. 5 to tamp down any falsehoods that may spread in the event votes are still being counted. At X, formerly Twitter, owner Elon Musk has reversed previous management's ban on political advertising and has removed many of the platform's guardrails. The billionaire has himself amplified false and misleading information about the election. And his pro-Trump super PAC has set up a hub on the X for users to report "potential incidents of voter fraud or irregularities," which is filled with unverified claims and rumors.