Facebook to ’Restrict Circulation of Content’ If Unrest Follows US Presidential Elections

By Staff, Agencies

Facebook has contingency plans to block some content on its platform if civil unrest breaks out after the November US election, a top executive said.

Nick Clegg, a former deputy British prime minister who is Facebook's head of global affairs, said the top social platform could take exceptional steps to "restrict the circulation of content" in case of turmoil.

"We have acted aggressively in other parts of the world where we think that there is real civic instability and we obviously have the tools to do that," Clegg said in an interview published Tuesday in the Financial Times.

The comments are line with prior reports that Facebook could deploy a "kill switch" to thwart the spread of misinformation in case of a dispute on US election results.

Clegg said: "There are some break-glass options available to us if there really is an extremely chaotic and, worse still, violent set of circumstances."

Facebook and other social networks, including Twitter, have been gearing up for post-election scenarios.

Both platforms have faced pressured to curb political misinformation, both from foreign actors and from groups within the United States.