ZUCKERBERG GIVES ELECTIONS A HAND

 Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, on Tuesday announced that they donated $300 million to two elections-focused groups to promote safe and secure elections amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The couple donated $250 million to the Center for Tech and Civic Life to help recruit and train poll workers, and ensure polling sites have the voting equipment needed to hold elections.

Zuckerberg and Chan also donated $50 million to the Center for Election Innovation and Research that will be sent to the offices of secretaries of states across the country to boost election security and voter information efforts.

“I’m concerned that our country’s election infrastructure faces many new challenges this year because of the Covid pandemic,” Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post. “There will be historic levels of voting by mail, and increased need for poll workers and equipment to support contact-free voting.”

“Election officials across the country are working hard to ensure that everyone can vote and every vote can be counted — and we want to help make sure they have the resources they need to do this,” he added.

Facebook has been heavily criticized for not doing enough to curb the spread of misinformation around voting, and in particular has faced allegations that it has not been strict enough on posts from world leaders, including those from President Trump.

The platform has taken steps to address these concerns, including announcing a policy in June to label but leave up “newsworthy” posts, including those from politicians.