Mozilla, the nonprofit organization behind the popular Firefox web browser, is calling on Facebook and Twitter to take action before the U.S. presidential election on November 3.
Specifically, Mozilla is demanding the two social media giants help “unfck the internet” by making big changes to two major features on the Facebook and Twitter platforms.
On Tuesday, Mozilla published an open letter in a full-page ad in the Washington Post urging Facebook to turn off its Group recommendations feature prior to the November elections. The organization similarly asked Twitter to shut down trending topics.
Folks are gaming Twitter and Facebook’s algorithms to spread election misinformation.
Until US election results are certified, Trending Topics and Group Recommendations need to stop.
See the actions we’re taking and how you can help: https://t.co/WXB8CP6Gbs
— Firefox 🔥 (@firefox) October 16, 2020
Mozilla believes it’s critical that these spreaders of misinformation be shut down until November 3.
Facebook Groups has been a major source of misinformation, especially over the past year. Dangerous, unsourced claims spread in the wake of the Black Lives Matter protests in June about antifa agitators being paid to travel to suburban towns across the U.S. to cause violence. This never happened. However, these unfounded rumors spread across the country via Facebook Groups.
As Mozilla mentions in one of its posts, Facebook is aware that its Groups feature is a major problem when it comes to misinformation. This is why the social network announced in September that it would stop recommending health-related Groups in an effort to combat COVID-19 misinformation.
Twitter trends also has its issues when it comes to viral falsehoods. Topics and keywords can trend before fact checkers and news outlets have a chance to vet the claims being made behind them. Like Facebook, Twitter also knows this key feature can be a problem. The company started adding human-generated context to trending topics last month in order to alleviate the spread of misinformation through its trending topics.
Mozilla, however, doesn’t believe these actions are enough, which is why it’s demanding these two features are paused until after the election. It’s a bold demand — and one that Facebook and Twitter are unlikely to accept.