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Facebook and Instagram send notifications telling users US election winner has not been decided, as Trump falsely claims victory

Andrew Griffin
Wednesday 04 November 2020 09:00 GMT
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(AFP via Getty Images)

Facebook and Instagram have pushed a notification to users telling them that there is not yet final results in the presidential election, after Donald Trump's false claim that he had already won.

The pop-up tells people on both apps that votes are still being counted and they should not believe premature claims of victory.

"Votes Are Still Being Counted," the message reads. "The winner of the 2020 US presidential election has not been projected."

It then sends users to Facebook's information hub, where results and further reading can be found.

Both Facebook and Twitter had said in advance of the election that they would apply warning labels to any posts that claimed victory before results were actually decided. They each applied those warnings to Mr Trump’s posts, with Twitter choosing to hide one tweet entirely.

But Facebook also said that it would be proactively pushing out notifications to ensure that people were aware the election had not yet been won.

Earlier in the day, Mr Trump had tweeted: ""We are up BIG, but they are trying to STEAL the Election. We will never let them do it. Votes cannot be cast after the Poles are closed!"

He deleted his tweet after a few minutes, correcting "Poles" to "polls", but the second attempt was hidden and given a warning by Twitter.

"Some or all of the content shared in this tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process," a label covering the tweet read.

The Twitter Safety account added: "We placed a warning on a tweet from realDonaldTrump for making a potentially misleading claim about an election. This action is in line with our civic integrity policy."

Facebook also added a warning to the president's message on its platform.

A label underneath the equivalent post read: "Final results may be different from initial vote counts, as ballot counting will continue for days."

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