Social media companies have been under intense pressure from campaigners, academics and lawmakers to take action against actors using dishonest techniques on their platforms to sway the results of elections. The 2016 US presidential election was heavily targeted by a Kremlin-backed disinformation campaign, with similar state-backed campaigns targeting other democratic events since.
Last year, Google announced that it would ban microtargeting by political advertisers, while Twitter went further in announcing an almost total ban on political advertising. Facebook has been singled out as passive in the face of dishonest political advertising, upholding the right of politicians to lie in adverts (with no fact-checking by Facebook) even as fellow social media companies imposed restrictions on political advertising.
Facebook's laissez-faire approach has been criticised by presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, who has been repeatedly targeted...