Trump told Facebook board his supporters were ‘law abiding’ during Capitol riot

The Hill logo

Former President Donald Trump defended his supporters as “law abiding” the day of the Capitol insurrection, while insisting his social media posts making false claims about the election did nothing to incite violence on January 6, when an angry mob breached the Capitol to stop the count of President Biden‘s Electoral College victory.

The defense by Trump was made to the Facebook Oversight Board, which was reviewing whether his account on the social media platform should be restored.

In comments submitted on the former president’s behalf, Trump said his supporters were “law-abiding” when they stormed into the building and that nothing he posted on Jan, 6 could “reasonably be interpreted as a threat to public safety.” Continue reading.

Online misinformation about the US election fell 73% after Trump’s social media ban

Online misinformation about the US election fell by as much as 73% in the week after President Trump was booted from Twitter and other social media sites.

According to findings by Zignal Labs, conversations about election fraud fell from 2.5 million mentions to 688,000 across several social media sites. The research house looked at conversations that spanned fraud, hacked machines, tampered ballots, and other conspiracies.

The data indicates that tech platforms’ ability to restrict the spread falsehoods is an effective approach to containing misinformation online. Continue reading.