Facebook, Instagram To Fight Election Meddling With Location Labels

Sometimes it can be hard to find out where a post on social media could be coming from. In the recent years, we’ve seen how some foreign entities have attempted to disrupt elections in another country by spreading misinformation using fake accounts and pages to make it seem like the post originated from the country the election is taking place in.

To help combat this problem, Facebook has announced that they will start testing out a new feature for both Facebook and Instagram to help better identify where posts are coming from.  This will come in the form of location labels where posts and pages that are not based in the US will have their location labeled.

What this means is that if a viral post that is being widely-shared by US users but hasn’t originated from the US will have its location labeled. This means that users will have a better idea of where the post could be originating from, and then make their own decision as to whether or not it might be a legitimate post or a post from a foreign entity trying to cause disruptions.

According to Facebook, “We want to make sure people use our services authentically and can understand who is behind the posts they’re seeing. This is particularly important when it comes to elections, so we’re taking extra steps to make Pages and accounts with large audiences more transparent.” This feature will be piloted in the US, but presumably could eventually find its way to other countries as well.

Tyler Lee
Categories: General
Tags: Facebook, Instagram