SOCIAL MEDIA – A decider in 2020 US Presidential elections
The entire world is closely following the 2020 US presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
But no other election in history has relied so much on technology and social media. The big social media players like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram, and other similar platforms can either make or break a person overnight.
What to expect
The lack of certainty and chaos about to happen on November 3rd in the social media platform is something similar to the famous dialogue “There’s a storm coming Mr.Wayne” Guess the movie in the comments.
With expected delays caused by the huge number of mail-in ballots and most of the traditional campaign events and polling practices in doubt because of the COVID-19 pandemic; social media platforms are gearing up for the Election day and the Aftermath of the week following that.
Social media platforms’ response
In recent times, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and small-time players like Pinterest and TikTok have rolled out policies on combating the disinformation about elections and voting; measures like Labeling or removing false voting information, controlling the claims of rigged election, possibly any foreign hand playing a role. But as days for the D-day draws near, it is becoming harder to enforce these.
Contingency plans
Some contingency plan of these social media platforms includes,
• Plans to curb posts, if either of the candidate declares premature victory before any official announcement
• Stopping video and articles questioning the legitimacy of the election
• Twitter announcing action against “inciting unlawful conduct to prevent a peaceful transfer of power or orderly succession”
The verdict
But one thing is for sure, that this election has the whole world taking interest in American politics. Social media platforms can be attributed as one of the main reasons for this. Some feel that this would be an even battle as both Biden and Trump are head-to-head in swing states, going into the debates. However, if we go by the social media trend, we’d be able to make some sense of it, at least after the coming week’s debates.
