Twitter flags 'president-elect Biden' posts as premature

Twitter on Friday flagged as premature posts referring to Joe Biden as "president-elect," as the vote count continued in the knife-edge US election with the Democrat leading Donald Trump in several key states.

Tweets referring to the former vice president with the victor's title and his running mate Kamala Harris as "vice president-elect" were tagged with messages saying counts were not yet final.

"Official sources may not have called the race when this was tweeted," read a message below a post from Democratic Coalition co-founder and podcaster Scott Dworkin using the two titles for Biden and Harris.

The notice came with a link to information about the status of the election.

Twitter and Facebook have been scrambling to flag, mask and limit the spread of premature claims of victory or false attacks on the voting process since the polls closed late Tuesday.

"As votes are still being counted across the country, our teams continue to take enforcement action on tweets that prematurely declare victory or contain misleading information about the election broadly," Twitter said.

"This is in line with our civic integrity policy and our recent guidance on labeling election results."

Unfounded claims by Trump regarding the voting process as well as premature claims of victory about either candidate in the race have been flagged or masked, with links provided to reliable sources of information.

Twitter's action made the comments less visible, and users seeking to read the posts were required to click through a warning.

'STRONG MANDATE TO LEAD'

Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the top Democrat in Congress, on Friday called Biden the "president-elect" of the United States after he pulled ahead in key election results.

"This morning it is clear that the Biden-Harris ticket will win the White House," Pelosi told reporters after Biden overtook President Donald Trump in the potentially decisive state of Pennsylvania.

"President-Elect Biden has a strong mandate to lead," she said.

It is "a happy day for our country. Joe Biden is a unifier, because he is determined to bring people together."

Pennsylvania would be enough to put Biden past the magic number of 270 votes in the state-by-state Electoral College, which determines the presidency.

Biden also took a razor-thin lead in votes counted from Georgia, which Trump until late in the campaign did not consider to be in play.

The Democrat has stopped short of declaring victory but said he expected that he and his vice presidential pick Harris would triumph.

Trump has angrily made unsubstantiated claims of fraud and sought to halt vote counting after prematurely declaring victory himself following the close of polls Tuesday.

Biden's performance came despite projections that Democrats will lose several seats in the House of Representatives, a major disappointment for the party which had hoped to expand its majority.

Pelosi played down the losses but said that the next House election in 2022 "will be a steeper climb" without Trump on the ballot.

The party of the president nearly always loses seats in Congress in the first midterm election.

Agence France-Presse

Time names Trump its 2016 'Person of the Year'

Time Magazine has named U.S. President-elect Donald Trump Person of the Year, citing the upheaval in American politics brought about by the election campaign and victory of the New York businessman.

"It’s hard to measure the scale of his disruption," Time said in its announcement on Wednesday, noting Trump's eclectic career as real estate magnate and reality television star before winning the highest office in the land.

"For those who believe this is all for the better, Trump’s victory represents a long-overdue rebuke to an entrenched and arrogant governing class," it said.

The magazine said its short list included Trump's rival in the 2016 presidential race, Democrat Hillary Clinton, as well as Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan and singer Beyonce.

"It's a great honor, it means a lot," Trump told NBC's "Today" show in an interview shortly after the announcement.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trump: Big decisions on his administration coming 'soon'

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said Friday he would use the Veterans Day holiday to focus on the imposing task of forming a new administration, saying he will soon be making "very important" decisions about who will help him govern.

"Busy day planned in New York," the Republican billionaire posted on Twitter regarding his transition process, which has been cranking up to full speed since he won the presidency in a shock upset over Democrat Hillary Clinton on Tuesday.

"Will soon be making some very important decisions on the people who will be running our government!"

Trump has about 70 days to put together a 15-member cabinet, and the names of several of his close advisors have been mentioned as options to fill key posts.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is heading the transition team, and he is believed to be in the running for attorney general, along with former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani.

On Thursday, the Trump campaign floated the idea of JP Morgan chief executive Jamie Dimon as Treasury secretary, while former House speaker Newt Gingrich was being discussed as Trump's potential White House chief of staff.

Trump assumes the presidency on Inauguration Day, January 20, 2017, and President Barack Obama has stressed that one of his main priorities is to assure a peaceful and smooth transition of power.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Zuckerberg sure fake news on Facebook didn't sway election

SAN FRANCISCO - Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday rejected the idea that bogus stories shared at the social network paved a path of victory for President-elect Donald Trump.

"The idea that fake news on Facebook, which is a very small amount of the content, influenced the election in any way I think is a pretty crazy idea," Zuckerberg said during an on-stage chat at a Technonomy technology trends conference in California.

The Facebook co-founder rhetorically asked why people would think there would be hoax stories about one candidate but not the other.

He also dismissed worries about Facebook users existing in "bubbles" where they only see news or perspectives echoing their viewpoints.

"Voters make decisions based on their lived experience," Zuckerberg said.

"You don't generally go wrong when you trust that people understand what they care about and what's important to them and you build systems that reflect that."

He added that research gathered at Facebook suggests news-filter bubbles are not a problem.

The social network found that while people may have a lot of friends very much like themselves, almost everyone at Facebook has someone in their mix who breaks the mold in some way, such as religion, ethnicity, or background.

However, Zuckerberg added, Facebook has also found that people are less inclined to click on links or otherwise check out shared stories that don't line up with their views.

"We just tune out," Zuckerberg said of the pattern. "I don't know what to do about that."

While acknowledging the importance of the election, he advised maintaining faith that most progress in innovation is made by private citizens, typically without help from the government.

"These elections make a real difference in the world, but it would not be right to suggest that it changes the fundamental arc of technology or progress over time," Zuckerberg said.

The News Feed at Facebook has evolved from early days of being about sharing personal tidbits with friends or family to becoming a platform for important news.

Facebook continues to adapt to that shift, modifying the way it ranks stories as well as the community guidelines regarding what might be offensive, according to Zuckerberg.

He conceded there was a lot that could be improved and that the process was ongoing, but contended it was misguided to put blame on Facebook.

"I do think there is a certain profound lack of empathy in asserting that the only reason someone could have voted the way they did is because they saw some fake news," Zuckerberg said.

"If you believe that, then I don't think you have internalized the message that Trump supporters are trying to send in this election."

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com