Ads - especially political ads - have distinct policy teams, operational staff and scaled reviewers in order to enforce this “higher bar” in a proactive manner, approving each piece of content before it can go live.Īds also generate the lion’s share of Meta’s profits, meaning they have additional rules and an even more extensive review process. However, there have always been clear differences in how platforms handle organic content and advertisements.Īdvertisements, promoted content, sponsored posts and other monetized content are already subject to their own unique policies, operational guidelines and review processes that are held to a higher standard than organic content. I can understand the argument for allowing prior election delegitimization in organic content. I know from personal experience that organic content has been and will always be incredibly challenging to moderate on the scale at which these platforms operate. We had a rigged election in 2020 but got more votes than any sitting president.

The effects of this policy are already being felt, including when Trump ran a Facebook ad in August where he said on video: “We won in 2016. The “ Big Lie” that the 2020 election was stolen not only caused a historic riot in our nation’s capital but has now become central to the 2024 campaigns of numerous Republican candidates, including former President Trump.

To allow a tech company to capitalize on the delegitimization of the American electoral process at a time when our democracy is arguably the most fragile it’s ever been is naive at best - and dangerous at worst. As a former employee of Meta and X’s (formerly known as Twitter) policy teams, and as director of tech policy at the Center for American Progress, I am deeply disturbed by the implications here.

Linkedin search email