So, we have this peculiar situation here in Iceland that essentially means that @Facebook is inherently influencing our upcoming parliamentary elections with a "computer says no". And this has to do with frames or badges that some users put on their profile pictures.
So, bit background. Iceland is a multi-party system, and each and every vote counts. @Facebook is also the largest social media platforms in Iceland and much of the discussions about politics and whom to vote for takes place there.
In order to visually show that you support one party or another, the parties have used the "frame" function, so that there is this little design around your pretty profile picture, showing whom you're supporting this year.
However, this function is now only available to certain parties, because of some... development issues? I don't know exactly, but it seems as if we are not able to create new "frames" for political parties, meaning that only some political parties have frames.
What does this mean? Yes, it means that those who are more politically visually represented on the platforms make it look like they are more popular. This means that the parties that do not have frames do not seem as popular. This creates biases.
If only five parties out of eight (random number) can utilize this function, then that means that some parties get more exposure than others. More chances to reach out to voters, to show how popular they are. This is influencing elections.
This has been brought up to @Facebook support but there is this "computer says no" attitude going on there. Either all parties have this function or none, that only some of the parties can utilize the function is not fair, and is influencing the elections.
I sincerely believe that @Facebook does not want to influence elections, either here in Iceland or elsewhere. And I think if they wanted to, they would not use "frames" as a way to do so.
But this is a small thing that actually matters, and disproportionately so in a small country that is very reliant on @Facebook for their political discourse. So, if you have any leads on how it would be possible to fix this, my DMs are open!
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