CHARLOTTE, NC – Facebook has made several announcements recently to help curb misinformation, fake news, and hate speech on its platform.

The biggest one is an announcement of a change to their terms of service. This is the message Facebook sent users of its platform recently:

“Effective October 1, 2020, section 3.2 of our Terms of Service will be updated to include: ‘We also can remove or restrict access to your content, services or information if we determine that doing so is reasonably necessary to avoid or mitigate adverse legal or regulatory impacts to Facebook.’”

This isn’t very different from what Facebook can remove now, however, this language gives more clarity so that users understand ahead of time that their content can be removed if Facebook sees fit to remove it.

This is especially important as it pertains to hate speech and fake news and the upcoming election.

Additionally, the platform has also announced that no new political advertisements will be approved the week of the election either. This policy won’t affect normal business ads, only those which are deemed political.

So what does this mean for you, the average Facebook user?

Be careful what you share, and even with stricter guidelines in place be careful what information you trust. Facebook has already caught Russian accounts running ads to sway political opinions in America.

In general, if it makes you very angry, verify before you believe it, check links for something that looks unrecognizable, and take regular breaks from social media for your mental health.