Facebook election 2020: Mark Zuckerberg online registration drive signs up record 4.4 million voters

Facebook has helped register a record 4.4 million voters, surpassing its goal for the November election, the company exclusively told USA TODAY on Monday.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg set the goal in June when he announced the massive effort to increase turnout in a USA TODAY op-ed.

The unprecedented ballot-box push exceeds previous Facebook efforts and large-scale registration campaigns such as Rock the Vote in 2016, which registered 1.7 million.

"This year, we launched the largest voting information campaign in U.S. history, with the goal of helping 4 million people register to vote," Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. "Today, we hit our goal."

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Facebook-fueled registration figures could grow. Online registration is still open in five states, where Facebook is running notifications at the top of Facebook, Instagram and Messenger. The figure, derived from conversion rates Facebook calculated from a few states it partnered with, also does not include registrations in the last few days.

The social media giant is pulling out all the stops to encourage more Americans to hit the polls, part of an unprecedented effort by social media companies to increase turnout during a highly contentious election cycle.

Facebook and other social media companies stepped in when the coronavirus has interrupted traditional voter registration drives door-to-door, on college campuses or in mall parking lots and voter registration numbers plunged as the pandemic spread in the spring.

The get-out-the-vote initiative benefited from the vast reach Facebook, Instagram and Messenger have in American life. It was also an acknowledgment of the harm from foreign interference, divisive messages, falsehoods and conspiracy theories in previous election cycles.

With the election days away, the pressure has never been higher on social media.

Facebook says it has taken steps to keep political candidates and their campaigns from using its social media platforms to cast doubt on the election and its outcome. It has also prepared emergency “break-glass” measures to restrict content on its platforms if civil unrest and violence erupt following the presidential election.

A former Facebook content moderator warned Monday that regardless of the election's outcome, she expects calls for violence.

Viana Ferguson, who worked as a moderator from 2016 to 2019 and spoke as part of a press briefing organized by the Real Facebook Oversight Board, a group of Facebook critics, said users of the platform have become increasingly bold about openly discussing "violence they are willing to execute."

"It's going to happent doesn't matter who wins," she said. "Facebook needs to be prepared for that."

For some on the political right, the company's efforts to curb harmful content have been too aggressive.

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President Trump and many Republicans criticized Facebook’s decision to slow the spread of New York Post article alleging ties between former vice president and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his son Hunter's business dealings with Ukraine. The article cited unverified emails that were reportedly discovered by Trump’s allies. USA TODAY has not been able to confirm the authenticity of the emails.

Social media companies say they are on high alert for misinformation that could sway voters or tip the election in one candidate’s favor. National intelligence officials have warned Americans that Iran and Russia are attempting to spread misinformation ahead of the election.

Facebook said it limited the spread of the New York Post article while waiting for it to be fact-checked. Twitter blocked users from tweeting out the link to the article and from sending it in private messages. CEO Jack Dorsey later said Twitter was wrong to block the article.

On Wednesday Zuckerberg, Dorsey and Google’s Sundar Pichai are scheduled to testify before the Senate Commerce Committee on how they police content on their platforms. The hearing revolves around Section 230, which shields internet companies from legal liability for what users post on their platforms. Lawmakers have called for Section 230 to be reformed or repealed.

Zuckerberg and Dorsey are also set to testify after the election on Nov. 17 before the Senate Judiciary Committee on allegations of anti-conservative bias.

Tech companies deny any partisanship, saying their policies strike a balance between users' rights to freely express themselves and keeping hate, abuse and misinformation off their platforms, though they concede they've made missteps in moderating content.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Facebook registers 4.4 million in record get out of the vote drive