The mammoth social network with 2.7 billion users worldwide has become an essential tool for political advertisers — raking in more than $100 million from the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump and Joe Biden alone. Unlike TV or print media, Facebook allows campaigns to rapidly respond to events, sometimes in a day or less.
{{quotebox|"The last week of the election is the most important week when it comes to messaging," said Tara McGowan, co-founder of digital-first Democratic outfit [[ACRONYM]], adding that "most voters in this country do not tune in and start paying attention or making their plans to vote until the final days of an election."<ref>https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/03/facebook-ad-shakeup-trump-biden-408641</ref>}}
By October 29, Facebook had already rejected 2.2 million ads and blocked 120,000 posts citing "election misinformation."<ref>https://www.foxbusiness.com/politics/facebook-blocks-posts-election-misinformation</ref> While mainstream [[fake news]] media are allowed to churn baseless scandals and smears in an [[October Surprise]], President Trump would be restricted from responding.
In August 2020 it was reported that Facebook was planning for the possibility that President Trump or his campaign could try to challenge mail in ballot election results. ''[[The New York Times]]'' reported that staffers were already putting together contingency plans in the event Trump tries to use Facebook to dispute the vote by declaring the [[U.S. Postal Service]] lost mail-in ballots or that other groups interfered with the vote. Facebook officials, including [[CEO]] [[Mark Zuckerberg]], were holding daily meetings to discuss how to minimize the platform from being used to cast doubts on the results. ''The Times'' noted that one plan would include a “kill switch” to shut down political ads after Election Day. The company officials believe the ads, which Facebook does not check for truthfulness, could be used to disseminate misinformation.