Facebook hopes voting hub will curb mail

The company also will direct users toward accurate information on mail-in voting.

Facebook and Instagram are launching a new portal aimed at delivering accurate voting information ahead of the U.S. elections, an effort that coincides with ongoing misinformation surrounding the political process.

The company announced Thursday it will launch a voter information hub that will include information about registration deadlines, ballot request information and the correct protocol for submitting a ballot. The hub will exist as a standalone web page, though Facebook and Instagram also will include notifications in users’ feeds about upcoming deadlines.

The company also will include links on posts about in-person and mail-in voting, directing users to a page where they can find accurate information provided by the Bipartisan Policy Center, a Washington think tank, about the voting process. Facebook started adding such labels on posts by federal politicians, including President Donald Trump, and candidates for political office in July.

The expanded effort comes amid an ongoing effort by the president to politicize mail-in voting by claiming without evidence that the process enables widespread fraud. Civil rights attorneys who Facebook hired to audit its misinformation policies faulted the company in June for failing to remove posts from the president that they determined would contribute to voter suppression efforts.

“It’s a nonpartisan effort that’s available to everyone, and we’ll send notifications at the top of Facebook and Instagram targeted by age and location so people of voting age see relevant information in their state,” the company said in its announcement. “With many states making changes to the voting process because of the pandemic, the center is also designed to help people navigate a confusing election process.”

Facebook’s “Voting Information Center” will allow users to check if they are registered to vote, direct them toward resources to register, examine their state’s vote-by-mail options and request mail-in or absentee ballots.

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg previously said the company did not do enough to stop the spread of fabricated news stories and hate speech prior to the 2016 presidential election.

Since then, anxieties over whether Trump would exploit Facebook for his own gain reportedly has roiled some company employees. Staffers urged Zuckerberg to explain what Facebook would do if Trump aimed to undermine the results of the election, BuzzFeed reported. That’s an ongoing concern of disinformation researchers, though an engineer who raised the issue internally was fired, according to BuzzFeed.

“A prolonged ballot process has the potential to be exploited in order to sow distrust in the election outcome,” Facebook said Thursday, referring to the idea that an influx of mail-in votes could delay the results. “One way we plan to fight this is by using the Voting Information Center…to make sure people have easy access to the latest, authoritative information and news on and after Election Night. We will have more to share on additional preparations soon.”

Whistleblower says USPS deploying new, ‘untested’ IT systems governing mail-in ballots

The Federal Ballot Mail Portal is described by a federal official as one of several IT systems that will be used to potentially deny thousands of mail-in…

Election official says Tina Peters would be consultant, won’t have access to election systems

SCOTUS tosses one of two injunctions against Trump USPS mail-in ballot rules

Government

• FBI officials say AI is bolstering adversaries, emphasizing need to focus on cyber basics, patching

• Feds accuse China of ‘systematic’ distillation of U.S. AI models

• CIA’s Michael Ellis says cyber intelligence is changing how the agency operates

• Jail time for Maine child in 764 marks turning point in federal law enforcement

Technology

• FCC proposes public scorecard to rate telecoms on anti-robocall efforts

• Pegasus, NoviSpy variant spyware found on devices of Serbian activists

• Wyden seeks upgraded NSA security guidance on commercial VPN use

• The Collective Cyber Defense letter wrote your next vendor questionnaire

Threats

• Chinese espionage groups swarm to exploit triple-link chain of zero-days

• Microsoft discloses two actively exploited zero-days among 974 vulnerabilities

• Russian national extradited to US for alleged involvement in bank-account takeover scheme

• Attackers exploit zero-days in consistently besieged SonicWall product

Policy

• ‘Watershed 250’ test program in Texas looks to private sector for water cybersecurity help

• Former sexual abuse victims say Grok used their images, videos to train deepfake capabilities

• Cyber threats nudge Trump to sign executive order on foreign equipment in U.S. energy infrastructure

• Bipartisan Senate bill aims to prepare energy sector for Q-Day