Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has refused to remove or otherwise add context to a video purporting to show voter suppression against Republicans.
The misleading video was captured during the Texas primary in March, but is being shared on social media as though it occurred during Tuesday’s midterms.
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In the video, a poll worker tells Republicans that they cannot vote at that location due to staffing shortages, The Washington Post reports.
“Okay, with this election you can vote in any precinct,” an unidentified poll worker says in the video, saying he doesn’t have staff at his voting centre. “You can vote Democrat but not Republican, I’m sorry.”
While the video as its been shared appears to show a poll worker turning away Republicans, the context of the encounter suggests that was not the case.
Both the poll worker and the Republicans in the video were recruiting election judges, who are required to be on-site for balloting to take place. Because the Republicans did not have an election judge in place, the site could not legally accept Republican ballots.
On Instagram, an account operated by a news organisation saying it caters to Jewish readers shared the video without any context as to its time or the nature of the counter.
Common Cause, a watchdog group, alerted Meta to the video, noting the lack of context and the fact that it could mislead voters into thinking the encounter occurred during Tuesday’s election. However, Meta told the Post that the video did not violate its policies and would not be removed or tagged with further context.
The same video circulated on Twitter, but that platform added a label for users to see that it had been "presented out of context,” per the Post. Despite that tag, at least one post sharing its misleading claims was retweeted more than 15,000 times.
The Independent has contacted Meta for further comment.
