Facebook Extends Ban on Donations to Lawmakers Who Voted Against Biden Win

Facebook said on Thursday it will resume making donations to US lawmakers through its political action committee but will not support 147 lawmakers who voted against US President Joe Biden's electoral certification in January.

The company had suspended all donations in the wake of the January 6 Capitol attack pending a review.

A company spokesman confirmed the decision to resume donations. The decision was reported earlier by BuzzFeed.

The company did not say how long the ban on donations to the Republicans who voted against certification will last.

In other Facebook-related news, the social media platform said on Wednesday that it would take "stronger" action against people who repeatedly share misinformation on the platform.

Facebook will reduce the distribution of all posts in its news feed from a user account if it frequently shares content that has been flagged as false by one of the company's fact-checking partners, the social media giant said in a blog post.

It added that it was also launching ways to inform people if they are interacting with content that has been rated by a fact-checker.

False claims and conspiracies have proliferated on social media platforms, including Facebook and Twitter, during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Whether it's false or misleading content about COVID-19 and vaccines, climate change, elections or other topics, we're making sure fewer people see misinformation on our apps," the company said in a statement.

Earlier this year, Facebook said it took down 1.3 billion fake accounts between October and December, ahead of an inspection by the US House Committee on Energy and Commerce into how technology platforms are tackling misinformation.

© Reuters

May 28, 2021