In a recent appearance on Axios on HBO, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg suggested that his company and “and other media” should work to convince the American public there is nothing illegitimate, strange, or suspect about the results upcoming presidential election taking days or weeks to be tabulated due to mail in voting.
Zuckerberg stressed that Facebook is preparing Americans to accept that election results may take weeks after November 3 to be tabulated, and explained that Facebook will add “informational context” to posts by any candidate who attempts to declare victory in an election before a media “consensus result” has been established.
“One of the things that I think we and other media need to start doing is preparing the American people,” said Zuckerberg, is “That there’s nothing illegitimate about this election taking additional days or even weeks to make sure that all the votes are counted, in fact, that may be important to be sure that this is a legitimate and fair election.”
Zuckerberg explained that Facebook will use “a bunch of of different messaging around that, just so people know that that’s normal.”
Then, Zuckerberg explained that “If one of the candidates, in any of the races, claims victory before there’s a consensus result, then we’re going to add some informational context to that post directly, saying that there’s no consensus result yet.”
In other words, if President Donald Trump were to declare victory in his reelection on the night of November 3, but Facebook and “other media” were to disagree with the results due to the belief that not all votes had been counted and those left uncounted could turn the tides of the election, Facebook would add information to any post by President Trump claiming victory.
Zuckerberg: "what we and the other media need to start doing is preparing the american people that there is nothing illegitimate about this election taking additional days or weeks to make sure all the votes are counted." pic.twitter.com/lGdnWMUzgm
— Zach Vorhies (@Perpetualmaniac) September 7, 2020
Zuckerberg then warned that “civil unrest” may occur between the time voting ends and the election is decided, or even after the new president is declared.