Saudi Press

Saudi Arabia and the world
Wednesday, Nov 12, 2025

Calls for Facebook, Twitter to halt trending sections ahead of election gather steam

Calls for Facebook, Twitter to halt trending sections ahead of election gather steam

The Mozilla Foundation sent a letter on Tuesday to Mark Zuckerberg and Jack Dorsey demanding they halt their trending features ahead of the 2020 election.

Calls for Twitter and Facebook to temporarily halt their respective trending features in the U.S. ahead of the 2020 presidential election are gaining steam with just two weeks until Election Day.

The Mozilla Foundation, a nonprofit supporting public Internet service, on Tuesday sent a letter with more than 6,000 signatures to the two social media giants demanding they "immediately turn off two features that can amplify disinformation: Facebook's Group Recommendations and Twitter's Trending Topics."



"This approach would solve an urgent and unmet goal: curbing disinformation at scale while protecting against bias," the letter reads. "Right now, a false or misleading trending topic or violent group can reach millions of people before other safeguards to label content or remove groups can take effect. These actions would apply equally and neutrally across your platforms in the U.S."


The letter also praises the two companies for taking "significant steps to curb the spread of disinformation related to the U.S. election: labeling false information, rejecting misleading ads, limiting retweets, and removing accounts and groups that promote lies, hate, conspiracy theories and violence."

The Mozilla Foundation bought a full-page ad in The Washington Post to promote the letter on Tuesday.

"We’ll continue our zero-tolerance approach to platform manipulation and any other attempts to undermine the integrity of our service," a Twitter spokesperson said in a statement to Fox Business.

The foundation is calling on users to sign letters addressed to Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Twitter founder Jack Dorsey through the organization's website. It is also calling on users to tweet directly to Dorsey demanding the site's "Trending Topics" feature be temporarily removed ahead of Nov. 3.

The nonprofit and others who support removing trending features are using the hashtag #UntrendOctober to promote the idea that started gaining traction on social media in late August.

Civil rights organization The Sleeping Giants, which helped organize a boycott against Facebook in June called "Stop Hate for Profit" after George Floyd's death, is also promoting Untrend October.

"[Twitter] has not gone nearly far enough in trying to deal with disinformation. Keep #UntrendOctober going and ask [Jack Dorsey] to disable Trending Topics for October," the organization wrote in a Sept. 1 tweet.


Twitter announced in an October blog post that it would be adding additional context to its Trending Topics feature in the "For You" tab in the United States before the election.

The Twitter spokesperson said the company has been "strengthening" how it tackles "disinformation and attempts to manipulate Trends, and recently introduced a number of significant product and enforcement updates that go hand-in-hand with the increased context that now accompany Trends."

"Specifically, we will only surface Trends in the 'For You' tab in the United States that include additional context, to help people gain an informed understanding of the high volume public conversation in the US and also help reduce the potential for misleading information to spread," the spokesperson said.

Social media's role in handling information related to the 2020 election and other breaking news has come under scrutiny in recent weeks and months; some experts argue that the platforms have too much power while others say they are not doing enough to censor certain speech.

Organizations called on advertisers to boycott Facebook over the summer after the website allowed a post from President Trump saying, "When the looting starts, the shooting starts" in response to nationwide civil unrest after Floyd's death to remain published on the site despite Twitter's decision to censor it.

More recently, a number of Republican legislators have called on Twitter and Facebook to explain their reasoning behind their respective decision to censor a report from the New York Post about 2020 Democratic nominee Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden, and his purported communication with the adviser to a Ukrainian energy company. The conversation has prompted questions about Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which gives liability protections to websites that allow users to post their own content.

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., told Fox News' Sean Hannity on Oct. 15 that Americans "ought to be able to sue" Facebook and Twitter for censoring certain posts and users.

“If you’ve been locked out of Twitter or if you can’t distribute this New York Post article on Facebook, you ought to be able to sue them," he said.

Newsletter

Related Articles

Saudi Press
0:00
0:00
Close
Cristiano Ronaldo Embraces Saudi Arabia’s 2034 World Cup Vision with Key Role
Saudi Arabia’s Execution Campaign Escalates as Crown Prince Readies U.S. Visit
Trump Unveils Middle East Reset: Syria Re-engaged, Saudi Ties Amplified
Saudi Arabia to Build Future Cities Designed with Tourists in Mind, Says Tourism Minister
Saudi Arabia Advances Regulated Stablecoin Plans with Global Crypto Exchange Support
Saudi Arabia Maintains Palestinian State Condition Ahead of Possible Israel Ties
Chinese Steel Exports Surge 41% to Saudi Arabia as Mills Pivot Amid Global Trade Curbs
Saudi Arabia’s Biban Forum 2025 Secures Over US$10 Billion in Deals Amid Global SME Drive
Saudi Arabia Sets Pre-Conditions for Israel Normalisation Ahead of Trump Visit
MrBeast’s ‘Beast Land’ Arrives in Riyadh as Part of Riyadh Season 2025
Cristiano Ronaldo Asserts Saudi Pro League Outperforms Ligue 1 Amid Scoring Feats
AI Researchers Claim Human-Level General Intelligence Is Already Here
Saudi Arabia Pauses Major Stretch of ‘The Line’ Megacity Amid Budget Re-Prioritisation
Saudi Arabia Launches Instant e-Visa Platform for Over 60 Countries
Dick Cheney, Former U.S. Vice President, Dies at 84
Saudi Crown Prince to Visit Trump at White House on November Eighteenth
Trump Predicts Saudi Arabia Will Normalise with Israel Ahead of 18 November Riyadh Visit
Entrepreneurial Momentum in Saudi Arabia Shines at Riyadh Forward 2025 Summit
Saudi Arabia to Host First-Ever International WrestleMania in 2027
Saudi Arabia to Host New ATP Masters Tournament from 2028
Trump Doubts Saudi Demand for Palestinian State Before Israel Normalisation
Viral ‘Sky Stadium’ for Saudi Arabia’s 2034 World Cup Debunked as AI-Generated
Deal Between Saudi Arabia and Israel ‘Virtually Impossible’ This Year, Kingdom Insider Says
Saudi Crown Prince to Visit Washington While Israel Recognition Remains Off-Table
Saudi Arabia Poised to Channel Billions into Syria’s Reconstruction as U.S. Sanctions Linger
Smotrich’s ‘Camels’ Remark Tests Saudi–Israel Normalisation Efforts
Saudi Arabia and Qatar Gain Structural Edge in Asian World Cup Qualification
Israeli Energy Minister Delays $35 Billion Gas Export Agreement with Egypt
Fincantieri and Saudi Arabia Agree to Build Advanced Maritime Ecosystem in Kingdom
Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN Accelerates AI Ambitions Through Major Partnerships and Infrastructure Push
IOC and Saudi Arabia End Ambitious 12-Year Esports Games Partnership
CSL Seqirus Signs Saudi Arabia Pact to Provide Cell-Based Flu Vaccines and Build Local Production
Qualcomm and Saudi Arabia’s HUMAIN Team Up to Deploy 200 MW AI Infrastructure
Saudi Arabia’s Economy Expands Five Percent in Third Quarter Amid Oil Output Surge
China’s Vice President Han Zheng Meets Saudi Crown Prince as Trade Concerns Loom
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
US and Qatar Warn EU of Trade and Energy Risks from Tough Climate Regulation
‘No Kings’ Protests Inflate Numbers — But History Shows Nations Collapse Without Strong Executive Power
Ofcom Rules BBC’s Gaza Documentary ‘Materially Misleading’ Over Narrator’s Hamas Ties
"The Tsunami Is Coming, and It’s Massive": The World’s Richest Man Unveils a New AI Vision
Yachts, Private Jets, and a Picasso Painting: Exposed as 'One of the Largest Frauds in History'
AI and Cybersecurity at Forefront as GITEX Global 2025 Kicks Off in Dubai
EU Deploys New Biometric Entry/Exit System: What Non-EU Travelers Must Know
Ex-Microsoft Engineer Confirms Famous Windows XP Key Was Leaked Corporate License, Not a Hack
China’s lesson for the US: it takes more than chips to win the AI race
Israel and Hamas Agree to First Phase of Trump-Brokered Gaza Truce, Hostages to Be Freed
The Davos Set in Decline: Why the World Economic Forum’s Power Must Be Challenged
Wave of Complaints Against Apple Over iPhone 17 Pro’s Scratch Sensitivity
Syria Holds First Elections Since Fall of Assad
×