Efforts to stop the spread of U.S. election misinformation

On October 29, days before the U.S. Presidential election, Instagram announced that it would temporarily disable “Recent” hashtags in an effort to halt the spread of misinformation. Several disinformation experts commented that these precautions may have been too little too late.

In August, Instagram and Facebook launched a Voting Information Center that appears at the top of people’s feeds. Both platforms started adding labels on political content in December 2019. Prompts also appear before a user can share political posts.

Investigations by Buzzfeed, Mashable, and others find that despite these efforts, false information continues to slip through the cracks—especially on IGTV, Instagram Live, and via Facebook video and groups.