Facebook To Block Political Ads Claiming Prematurely Claiming Victory Election Week

Facebook on Wednesday said it will reject political ads that prematurely claim victory for a candidate because of expected vote-counting delays as a massive mail-in vote is likely to slow the process.

"Facebook will be rejecting political ads that claim victory before the results of the 2020 election have been declared," company spokesperson Andy Stone tweeted Wednesday.

There was increasing pressure to suspend political ads during election week to limit the spread of misinformation. Susan Rice, former national security adviser in the Obama White House, is among the people who have expressed concern that President Donald Trump could claim victory wrongly and prematurely.

To combat misinformation Facebook said it partnered with Reuters and the National Election Pool, which is made up of major U.S. news organizations, to determine the winners of the Nov. 3 election.

Facebook has long faced criticism for how it handles the spread of misinformation on its network. Critics argue misleading posts circulating on pages pose harm to users, and the social network's unwillingness to fact check political ads has been at the forefront of concern.

Facebook recently shut down a network on its site that was linked to China. It pulled from the site because Facebook officials thought the network could potentially interfere with the 2020 election. The network had about 130,000 followers and fewer than 3,000 U.S.-based users were following the account, The New York Times reported.

With mounting criticism against Facebook, 54% of U.S. adults agree that social media companies should not be allowed to distribute political ads on their platforms, a Pew Research Center survey found. Forty-five percent, however, disagreed, saying at least some ads should be allowed.