Facebook interfered with U.S. elections almost 40 times since 2008: Study

Facebook has interfered with U.S. elections almost 40 times since 2008, according to a study conducted by the Media Research Center.

Among the group's findings are Facebook censuring 2024 presidential candidates, including Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and 2022 Senate and House candidates on their platform. For example, the company removed Virginia gubernatorial candidate Amanda Chase’s account. The company also "shuttered political advertising one week before the election" in 2020, according to the MRC's analysis. 

In addition, MRC said there were at least 3 times when Facebook leadership publicly voiced support for online free speech but took a different path afterward.

"Facebook/Zuckerberg voiced support for free speech online, but after the remarks, the Big Tech platform went in the opposite direction," wrote MRC Free Speech America Vice President Dan Schneider and editor Gabriela Pariseau, who conducted the study.

"But following a series of so-called ‘civil rights’ audits conducted by the left, COO Sheryl Sandberg praised the leftist recommendations and committed to ‘put more of their proposals into practice,’ which she did," they also wrote.

The group outlined a series of recommendations for government leaders at the state and federal level in response to Facebook's election track record.

House Speaker Johnson "should direct relevant committees and committee chairmen to investigate Facebook for interfering in elections," "state attorneys general and state secretaries of state should take appropriate action to enforce state election laws as it relates to Facebook’s election interference" and "state legislatures should ensure that Big Tech cannot engage in viewpoint discrimination."