Facebook cutting down political content during Canadian election

As the federal election looms, Canadians should see less political content on their Facebook feeds as the social media giant attempts to prevent misuse of the platform and the spread of misinformation during elections.

It's a change Anita Kirkbride, CEO and founder of Halifax's Twirp Communications, said Facebook has been implementing for the past couple of years.

“I realized I saw very little about the Nova Scotia election on Facebook,” Kirkbride told NEWS 95.7's fill-in host Todd Veinotte. “I don't know if I saw anything, actually. I think, maybe, it's almost like we've gone too far in the opposite direction at this point.”

The change is part of Facebook's Canadian Election Integrity Initiative which the company said it implemented ahead of the 2019 federal election.

The initiative is a seven-pillar plan that includes the social media giant partnering with Elections Canada to provide accurate information about voting.

“We’ve kept our foot on the gas pedal,” Facebook's initiative reads. “Our robust efforts build on the foundation laid ahead of the 2019 federal election and position us well in anticipation of Canada’s next federal election.”

Facebook's initiative includes a pilot project that began in February to reduce the number of political posts — no matter the party — that automatically appear in the feeds of Canadian, Brazilian and Indonesian users.

However, that doesn't mean political content has been completely wiped from Facebook — it just affects how often a user sees political posts.

Facebook users can alter their settings to change how much political content they see on their feed. It's also still possible to visit and follow political pages.

But on top of that, Facebook made changes to the platform's paid advertisements about social issues, elections and politics; anyone who wants to advertise those topics must first apply to the company.

“They're asking for authentication of anybody that wants to promote that kind of stuff so that it can't be just anybody,” Kirkbride said. “It can't be some anonymous organization that's putting this information out there and actually paying to get it out there.”

Those changes were implemented due to the company attempting to increase ad transparency and election integrity on Facebook and Instagram.

Applications for those kinds of advertisements are reviewed by a combination of artificial intelligence and human review.

However, Kirkbride said she thinks it might be harder for advocates and social organizations to get authorization from Facebook to run advocacy-type advertisements.

For the 2020 U.S. election, Facebook completely banned political advertisements on its platform and only lifted that ban in March.

Some people may consider Facebook's advertisement authorization process and changes to political content in feeds as forms of censorship.

“Some would call it that, but Facebook is only one way in which we can communicate with people,” Kirkbride said. “Is it censorship if you still have access to radios and you still have access to newspapers and TV and public meetings to talk about this stuff?”

Still, there's no denying the impact social media, including Facebook, has on elections and bringing information to users — especially those who don't use social media often or fact-check the content they consume.

Since 2017, Facebook has been involved in more than 200 elections worldwide; it has also been a large force in international political situations such as the 2016 U.S. election and Brexit.

Facebook isn't the only social media company taking steps to prevent the spread of misinformation and social media misuse.

Twitter banned political advertisements globally in 2019. For the upcoming Canadian election, it'll monitor four main categories for posts: misleading information about how to participate in the election, suppression and intimidation, misleading information about outcomes and false or misleading affiliation.

Google and YouTube also often remove content that violates the company's policies including possible posts that abuse its systems.

TikTok has also partnered with Elections Canada to ensure that users are “presented with authentic, verified information about the election, including when, where and how they can vote,” according to a post the company made on Tuesday.

Under the partnership, TikTok Canada has created an election guide — in both French and English — with authoritative information.

The video-focused social media app recognizes it's not the go-to app for breaking news or politics, nor does it accept political advertisements. However, it does recognize the immense popularity the app has among Canadians.

“Misinformation, disinformation and threats to civic engagement are challenges no platform can ignore,” TikTok Canada's post reads. “By working together as an industry with government, experts and civil society organizations, we can better protect the civic processes that are so essential to our users.”