Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook CEO who turned out to be the only Silicon Valley CEO to have the temerity to stand up to both the "woke mob" demanding Facebook run every conservative-leaning group off its platform, and the #RussiaHoax fanatics who insist Zuckerberg was duped by Putin into helping Trump rig the election - a fanciful narrative with no basis in fact.
But that hasn't stopped Democratic pols and, well, pretty much everybody to slam Facebook as an agent of chaos in our society, an example of corporate scapegoating at its finest.
In the face of an advertiser boycott and mounting political pressure (few have more to lose if Biden triumphs than Zuckerberg), the company has once again caved, and ceded to its critics yet another draining concession via its advertising business. Of course, this isn't the first time.
In a statement to the press Thursday morning, Zuckerberg said Facebook would block new political ads during the final week of the election, and also develop a process for suppressing 'premature' claims of victory on the platform.
"This election is not going to be business as usual," he said, acknowledging the difficulties of voting during a pandemic.
"I’m worried that with our nation so divided and election results potentially taking days or even weeks to be finalized, there could be an increased risk of civil unrest across the country," he said in the statement, adding that "our democracy is strong enough to withstand this challenge and deliver a free and fair election."
As for expectations that the results of the election likely won't be known on election night, Zuckerberg said "it’s important that we prepare for this possibility in advance and understand that there could be a period of intense claims and counterclaims as the final results are counted."
To ensure that no fraudulent claims of victory are propagated on Facebook - a luducrious notion that has been propagated by the press and the intelligence community without, as the liberals like to say , "a shred of evidence" - Facebook will partner with Reuters, the financial newswire service, to ensure the integrity of its election night results.
The ban on new political ads during the final week of the campaign is intended to stop campaigns from spreading "misinformation" just as voters are heading to the polls.
Finally, Facebook will also take steps to "protect election officials" from threats of violence during the vote-counting process. Meanwhile, Facebook will continue to swiftly remove any "misinformation" about the voting process - like, for example:
