Facebook and Twitter Are on “High Alert” Before and After the Presidential Election

Before and after the presidential election in November, social media companies like Facebook and Twitter are on “high alert” for disinformation.

NPR explained that there are many ways bad actors could abuse platforms such as Twitter.

Yoel Roth, Twitter’s head of site integrity, “mentioned a few, from a high-profile hack like Twitter saw in July to attempts by Russia and other countries to use the platform to spread misinformation,” as reported by NPR.

“Having a vivid imagination is key,” he told NPR. “None of the threats are off-limits.”

Roth also explained that they “really undertook a process to try and predict what the worst-case scenarios were based on what we had seen previously in 2016, 2018 and in elections around the world, as well as some of the things that we thought were likely to happen in the United States this time around.”

Tech giants such as Facebook predict that uncertainty may cause an “information vacuum,” Fox Business added. Therefore, this may result in conspiracy theories.

“We are on high alert before the election and after the election,” said Facebook Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg. She also said to NPR’s All Things Considered, “We are worried about misinformation. We are worried about people claiming election results [prematurely].”

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