39 Times Face­book Inter­fered in US Elec­tions Since 2008

If Face­book, the com­pa­ny, had a per­son­al Face­book pro­file, its “rela­tion­ship sta­tus” with free speech would say, “It’s com­pli­cat­ed.” The plat­form, how­ev­er, has con­sis­tent­ly court­ed elec­tion inter­fer­ence efforts.
MRC Free Speech Amer­i­ca researchers com­piled 39 times Face­book was caught inter­fer­ing in U.S. elec­tions since 2008. The platform’s record of elec­tion-inter­fer­ing cen­sor­ship began in 2012, reached a crescen­do in 2020 and has begun fad­ing some­what in the ear­ly stages of the 2024 elec­toral cycle. All the while, Face­book founder and CEO Mark Zucker­berg has repeat­ed­ly made pro-free speech com­ments includ­ing dur­ing his famous 2019 speech at George­town Uni­ver­si­ty.
“We can either con­tin­ue to stand for free expres­sion under­stand­ing its messi­ness but believ­ing that the long jour­ney towards greater progress requires con­fronting ideas that chal­lenge us. Or we can decide that …