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Is Facebook Really Ready for 2020 Election?

Associated Press

   Ever since Russian agents and other opportunists abused its platform in
   an attempt to manipulate the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook
   has insisted -- repeatedly -- that it's learned its lesson and is no
   longer a conduit for misinformation, voter suppression and election
   disruption.

   But it has been a long and halting journey for the social network.
   Critical outsiders, as well as some of Facebook's own employees, say
   the company's efforts to revise its rules and tighten its safeguards
   remain wholly insufficient to the task, despite it having spent
   billions on the project. As for why, they point to the company's
   persistent unwillingness to act decisively over much of that time.

   "Am I concerned about the election? I'm terrified," said Roger McNamee,
   a Silicon Valley venture capitalist and an early Facebook investor
   turned vocal critic. "At the company's current scale, it's a clear and
   present danger to democracy and national security."

   The company's rhetoric has certainly gotten an update. CEO Mark
   Zuckerberg now casually references possible outcomes that were
   unimaginable in 2016 -- among them, possible civil unrest and
   potentially a disputed election that Facebook could easily make even
   worse -- as challenges the platform now faces.

   "This election is not going to be business as usual," Zuckerberg wrote
   in a September Facebook post in which he outlined Facebook's efforts to
   encourage voting and remove misinformation from its service. "We all
   have a responsibility to protect our democracy."

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