New Six-Figure TV Ad Buy Slams Facebook for Gutting Election Integrity Safeguards Ahead of Midterms

For Immediate Release
October 26, 2022
Contact: press@accountabletech.org

“We don’t want another insurrection,” says ad running in New York, D.C., and San Francisco.

Today, Big Tech watchdog Accountable Tech announced a $250,000 national TV and digital ad buy slamming Facebook for rolling back election integrity safeguards ahead of the upcoming midterms. The ad highlights how Facebook – despite admitting that their weak policies in 2020 helped fuel the January 6th insurrection – has since rolled back content moderation safeguards, disbanded their team overseeing the platform’s role in the elections, ended their work to address the societal harm of their products, and scaled back their own transparency tools and staff working on elections.

The ad comes amid increasing concerns of potential violence around the upcoming elections, particularly with rising extremism and a record number of election deniers on the ballot.

WATCH THE AD

“After fueling violent attacks on our democracy, Facebook is rolling back safeguards,” the ad says. “They disbanded their team overseeing the platform’s role in elections that did work on addressing the societal harms of their own products; stopped promoting authoritative sources; and scaled back their own transparency tools for tracking election misinformation while continuing to put their own profit first – no matter the cost. We don’t want another insurrection. It’s time to hold Facebook accountable for failing to protect democracy.”

“What’s worse than an insurrection? Facebook apparently wants to find out,” said Accountable Tech’s Executive Director, Nicole Gill. “It’s strikingly clear that Facebook’s promises to prioritize election integrity in 2020 were nothing more than a cheap PR stunt — an attempt to distract us from the fact that their algorithms actively promote violence and misinformation for profit. Mark Zuckerberg is pouring billions into the Metaverse’s virtual reality while actively inflaming the real-world harms of political violence and misinformation. This isn’t ignorance or inexperience — this is brazen indifference to the safety of our democracy.”

The 30-second spot will run on CNN, CNBC, and MSNBC in TV markets across the country. It will also run on Connected TV and digital platforms in Washington, DC, San Francisco, and New York City, and will target users who have been served Meta advertisements before.

For more on how Facebook has gutted their election security policies since fueling the January 6th insurrection, see Accountable Tech’s recent memo here.

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