Following a long time of slow methods, Fb muzzles Trump

Nov. 10, 2016: Times after Trump’s election, Fb CEO Mark Zuckerberg phone calls the notion that “fake news” on Facebook experienced motivated the election “a rather mad concept.” He later on walks back the remark.

December 2016: Facebook says it will hire third-celebration actuality-checkers to combat misinformation.

April 27, 2017: Fb publicly acknowledges that governments or other destructive non-state actors are using its social community to affect national elections, in line with U.S. authorities results of Russian interference.

Oct 2017: Facebook claims advertisements connected to a Russian internet company ended up viewed by an approximated 10 million folks right before and immediately after the 2016 election.

November 2017: Ahead of congressional hearings on election interference, Facebook ups that estimate, declaring Russian advertisements fomenting political division most likely arrived at as several as 126 million people.

Jan. 4, 2018: Zuckerberg declares his 2018 resolution is to “fix” Fb.

March 2018: Proof grows that Fb campaigns ended up utilized to steer the U.K. towards Brexit.

April 2018: Zuckerberg testifies before Congress and apologizes for the company’s missteps, as effectively as faux information, loathe speech, a absence of knowledge privacy and international interference in the 2016 elections on his system.

Could 2018: Democrats on the Home intelligence committee launch much more than 3,500 Facebook advertisements created or promoted by a Russian world wide web company just before and soon after the 2016 election.

July 2018: British lawmakers phone for better oversight of Facebook and other platforms.

July 2018: After Fb warns of skyrocketing costs owing in component to beefing up stability and hiring much more moderators, its inventory price suffers the worst fall in its historical past. Its shares really don’t get well until January 2020.

Sept. 5, 2018: Fb and Twitter executives pledge right before Congress to defend in opposition to foreign intrusion.

October 2018: Facebook invites the press to tour a freshly produced “war room” for combating election-similar misinformation in what is mostly found as a community relations move.

October-November 2018: Forward of the 2018 U.S. midterm election, Fb removes hundreds of accounts, web pages and groups for suspected backlinks to foreign election interference.

Feb. 18, 2019: In a scathing report, British lawmakers call for a mandatory code of ethics and independent overseers for social media platforms, precisely calling out Fb for complex layout that appears to be to “conceal understanding of and accountability for particular choices.”

May perhaps 2019: Fb declines to take away a online video manipulated to demonstrate Property Speaker Nancy Pelosi slurring her words. The altered clip is shared millions of occasions.

Oct 2019: Facebook unveils new stability devices built to protect against international interference in elections.

November 2019: Facebook opens a new misinformation “war room” ahead of U.K. elections.

May well-June 2020: Fb declines to take away Trump posts that counsel protesters in Minneapolis could be shot. Zuckerberg defends his decision in a Facebook publish. Fb also declines to choose action on two Trump posts spreading misinformation about voting by mail. Some Facebook employees resign in protest.

June 2020: Facebook says it will increase labels to all posts about voting that immediate buyers to authoritative information from condition and local election officers. This involves posts by the president.

July 8, 2020: A quasi-unbiased civil-legal rights audit criticizes Facebook’s “vexing and heartbreaking conclusions” with respect to civil rights and election misinformation, such as Trump’s tweets on voting by mail.

August 2020: Right after years of a fingers-off technique, Fb restricts the conspiracy motion QAnon, but won’t ban it outright.

Sept. 3, 2020: Facebook curbs political adverts, although only for 7 times ahead of the U.S. election.

Oct. 6, 2020: Facebook bans all teams that guidance QAnon.

Oct. 7, 2020: Fb even more limitations political ads, readies a lot more labels for candidate posts that prematurely declare victory or contest official final results, and bans the use of “militarized language” in relationship with calls for poll viewing.

Nov. 3., 2020: Despite fears about safety in the runup to Election Day and social media corporations bracing for the worst, the election turns out to be the most secure in U.S. heritage, federal and state officials from both parties say — repudiating Trump’s unsubstantiated promises of fraud.

Nov. 5, 2020: Facebook bans a significant team identified as “Stop the Steal” that supporters of President Donald Trump were making use of to arrange protests in opposition to the presidential vote depend. Some users had identified as for violence, although several falsely claimed that Democrats have been “stealing” the election from Republicans. It also bans the hashtag by the similar name, even though not just before that and comparable terms are outlined practically 120,000 periods on internet websites and social media platforms, for each Zignal Labs.

November 2020: Facebook and Twitter largely fight back against Trump’s baseless statements of election fraud by slapping labels on his posts, this sort of as “Official resources called this election in a different way.” Critics say the measures really don’t go far plenty of and false claims that the election experienced prevalent fraud keep on to thrive on-line, pushed by Trump and his supporters.

Nov. 17, 2020: The CEOs of Facebook and Twitter give assurances of vigorous motion against election disinformation, they tell Republicans at a Senate hearing. Zuckerberg and Twitter’s Jack Dorsey defend the safeguards in opposition to the use of their platforms to spread falsehoods and incite violence in the contest concerning Trump and Biden.

Jan. 6, 2021: In an unprecedented action, Fb and Twitter suspend President Donald Trump from publishing to their platforms following the storming of the U.S. Capitol by his supporters. Twitter jumps to start with and Facebook and Instagram abide by in the night, saying that Trump would not be able to write-up for 24 several hours pursuing two violations of its guidelines. Industry experts mentioned that the companies’ steps comply with a long time of hemming and hawing on Trump and his supporters spreading perilous misinformation and encouraging violence

Jan. 7, 2021: Zuckerberg announces that the danger of allowing for Trump to use the system is much too terrific subsequent the president’s incitement of a mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol a working day before. Zuckerberg states Trump’s account will be locked “for at least the upcoming two weeks” and perhaps indefinitely.