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| Facebook and TikTok block hashtags supporting Trump in allegations of election theft |
Facebook and TikTok ban the tags used to spread disinformation and conspiracy theories about the US presidential election.
The generally banned hashtag revolves around unfounded allegations that the Democrats tried to rig the elections in order to defeat the president (Donald Trump).
Banned hashtags on Facebook include the hashtag #StoptheSteal, which is widely used to spread allegations that Democrats cheated in the election, and the hashtag #sharpiegate, which falsely claims that the Sharpie pen was used to target Trump. Cashing. State vote. Arizona.
TikTok blocks the #sharpiegate, #stopthesteal and #riggedelection tags. TechCrunch was the first to spot Facebook and TikTok hashtag bans.
While Twitter does not appear to ban the hashtags of electoral conspiracy theories, it has added warning labels to some of the tweets that may contain incorrect information. He also tagged other tweets with a message, to encourage readers to learn more about election security.
Curbing these hashtags against collusion theories is part of a larger effort by social platforms this week to quickly clean up election misinformation. Twitter reported Trump's tweets, made unfounded allegations of fraud or skewed the vote count.
Facebook added a similar red flag: The site today shut down an organization called "Theft Prevention" that has prevented more than 300,000 members from joining because the organization is involved in fraud charges without evidence. Facebook also said: "He has seen disturbing calls from members of this organization about violence."
TikTok said banning the use of these tags is "part of its natural limitations and dealing with fake news / hate speech and other content that violates our policies." A service spokesperson told The Verge that these marks were removed yesterday because "the content of these marks often violates the misinformation policy."