Meta Is About to Royally Screw Up The Next Election

Facebook parent company Meta is allowing political ads on its platforms that promote the false belief that the 2020 election was rigged, a move that could destroy the upcoming vote in 2024.

A Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday revealed that Meta actually made the change in 2022. Facebook and Instagram will now allow political ads that say past elections were “rigged” or “stolen,” although they are not allowed to claim that ongoing or upcoming elections are fraudulent.

Meta executives “made the decision based on free-speech considerations after weighing past U.S. elections in which the results might have been contested by a portion of the electorate,” the Journal reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the move.

The main vote in question is the 2020 election, which former President Donald Trump insists he won. The problem, of course, is that while a portion of the electorate may have contested the vote, there was absolutely no fraud found whatsoever.

Trump and his allies repeatedly contested the 2020 results, filing legal challenges and demanding recounts in battleground states. Every lawsuit was ultimately dismissed, and none of the recounts found any issues with the results.

Meta’s decision means that politicians will be able to straight-up lie to voters on two of the most popular social media platforms. Trump has already taken advantage of the policy change. In August, he ran a campaign ad on Facebook that claimed, “We won in 2016. We had a rigged election in 2020 but got more votes than any sitting president.”

Both of his claims in the second sentence have been disproven multiple times. But this ad was in line with Meta’s new policy.

It should go without saying that Meta’s decision is dangerous. Hiding behind the justification of “free speech” does not change that. Completely unmoderated free speech causes a rush of disinformation, which many people are only too happy to believe.

That disinformation can lead to very real offline consequences, from politically motivated violence to the installation of an authoritarian government. And Meta is apparently willing to help contribute to that.

It’s never too late to learn civics—even if you’re antagonizing other members of Congress on the House floor, apparently. Shortly after a vote on the House’s stopgap spending bill, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene got another awkward lesson about the U.S. political system.

“My Democratic colleague across the aisle who is 80 years old and has been here over 30 years just said we’re on the verge of a shutdown,” Greene said, taking a jab at Connecticut Representative Rosa DeLauro.

“She probably just forgot that a few hours ago she voted for the continuing resolution that will extend the budget, and we are not on the verge of a shutdown,” Greene added.

But DeLauro didn’t take the provocation lying down, instead taking the opportunity to educate the Georgia lawmaker that there is another half of Congress that will exercise its own judgment over the stopgap bill—with just three days before the government is scheduled to shut down.

“It may be that the gentlelady doesn’t know that there is another body attached to the U.S. Congress called the United States Senate, and they have to vote on the continuing resolution,” DeLauro whipped back. “And when they vote on it, we’ll find out what it is that they do with regard to this continuing resolution passed by the House, which quite frankly is flawed to a fare thee well.”

House Republicans spent the better part of October ousting their own speaker and subsequently wasting weeks trying to find a replacement, rather than working to prevent the looming government shutdown.

DeLauro then went on to argue the current spending bill, proposed by the House GOP, fails to meet U.S. obligations “both domestic and international.”

“And by the way, there isn’t a law of the land until the president of the United States signs it. That may be a basic lesson in civics. There is the House, there is the Senate, and there is the president,” DeLauro quipped.

Greene was also fact-checked earlier this month when she lumped Confederate General Robert E. Lee into her defense of a bill that would prevent the removal of federal statues and monuments depicting the Founding Fathers.

Ukraine’s Security Service notified Rudy Giuliani’s top Ukrainian allies on Monday that they are suspects of treason, citing evidence that the officials participated in activities aiding Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A Ukrainian member of parliament, Oleksandr Dubinsky, ex-Ukrainian lawmaker Andriy Derkach, and ex-prosecutor Kostyantyn Kulyk are suspected of joining an organization founded by chief members of Russia’s Military Intelligence while Giuliani worked to dig up dirt on President Joe Biden and his son Hunter Biden in 2019, according to a statement.

The organization received more than $10 million from the Russian Federation to “discredit” Ukraine on the international stage.

“It is established that on the instructions of the Russian special services, it organized events to discredit the image of Ukraine in the international arena in order to worsen diplomatic relations with the United States and complicate Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and NATO,” the State Investigative Bureau said in a statement.

Dubinsky, who is also suspected of spreading misinformation about Ukraine’s political leadership, will be detained for 60 days, or until January 12, 2024, reported Reuters. Dubinsky was not named in the charging document but was identified as the subject of the remand by other lawmakers, according to the outlet.

Giuliani met with Dubinsky and Derkach in Kyiv in December 2019 as part of his “documentary series” with One America News Network on election meddling, hoping to discredit the presidential election results.

A former Ukrainian presidential adviser, Igor Novikov, told Time in 2021 that he believed “Mayor Giuliani’s actions in Ukraine threatened our national security” and that the country should not allow efforts to “drag our country into our allies’ domestic politics” to go “unpunished.”

Giuliani and Trump have both pleaded not guilty in the criminal trial charging them and 16 others with attempting to overturn the 2020 election.

Representative James Comer had a complete meltdown Tuesday when asked about loans he appears to have given his brother.

Comer has insisted for months that Joe Biden is guilty of corruption, most recently citing a check the president gave his brother Jim Biden in 2018. But last week, a Daily Beast report revealed that Comer and his own brother have engaged in multiple land swaps over the years through family-owned businesses that do not appear to actually exist.

When Democratic Representative Jared Moskowitz asked Comer about the loans during a House hearing Tuesday, Comer grew incensed.

“I’ve never loaned my brother one penny,” Comer said, calling the story “completely false.”

Comer also said it was “bullshit” that the story said he owned a shell company. As he continued to deny that he had loaned his brother money or that his family had engaged in shady business dealings, he grew more heated.

“You look like a Smurf here, just going around and stuff!” he yelled at Moskowitz. “You continue to spew disinformation!”

As Moskowitz shouted questions, specifically why voters should believe Comer, the Kentucky Republican yelled over him. He told the Democrat to go to Comer’s district and see all the land Comer owns for himself.

At one point, Comer said, “You’ve already been proven a liar, Mr. Moskowitz!”

“Who’s proven me a liar—you? Your word means nothing!” Moskowitz shot back.

Moskowitz then challenged Comer to sit for a deposition about the loan. Comer said he would be happy to sit down with Hunter and Jim Biden.

Before the hearing returned to its original agenda, Moskowitz delivered a parting shot.

“We believe everything in the media, like when you go on Fox News and say things—and everyone says that they’re true—with innuendos and ifs and maybes, the Biden family, the crime family, all this nonsense,” he said. “But when it happens to you, it’s fake news.”

“There should be the same standard. You said at the beginning of this year, the Biden administration can’t have it both ways. Neither can you, Mr. Chairman!”

A fight nearly broke out during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, or HELP, committee hearing on Tuesday after Senator Markwayne Mullin read aloud a union boss’s tweet snubbing the freshman Oklahoma congressman as a “clown” and a “fraud.”

“Sir, this is a time, this is a place, if you want to run your mouth we can be two consenting adults and finish it here,” Mullin said.

“OK, that’s fine. Perfect,” responded International Brotherhood of Teamsters General President Sean O’Brien.

“You want to do it now?” Mullin asked. “Stand your butt up then.”

“You stand your butt up, big guy,” retorted O’Brien.

Senator Bernie Sanders narrowly defused the fight after Mullin rose out of his chair, slamming his gavel while calling the committee to order.

“You’re a United States senator, sit down,” boomed Sanders. “This is a hearing. God knows the American people have enough contempt for Congress.”

Moments later, the senator posted a photo of himself before a table of guns, captioned, “Let’s do it. Anyplace, anytime.”