Facebook bans hashtag searches for #StopTheSteal and #SharpieGate conspiracy theories

#StopTheSteal is a right-wing conspiracy theory claiming that the Democratic Party is trying to steal the election from Donald Trump by, well, counting valid votes. #SharpieGate is another conspiracy theory claiming that Trump supporters in Arizona who filled in their ballots with a Sharpie won't have their vote counted.

Both of these conspiracy theories are false. There is no evidence of voter fraud. Ballots marked with Sharpie markers are being counted. Yet, the misinformation continues to spread.

To help stop these falsehoods from gaining anymore steam, Facebook is now blocking searches for both the #StopTheSteal and #SharpieGate hashtags.

If a user clicks on one of those hashtags in a post, they are met with the following prompt:

“Keeping Our Community Safe,” the message reads. “Posts with (#stopthesteal or #sharpiegate) are temporarily hidden here. Some content in those posts goes against our Community Standards.”

Earlier today, Facebook removed a Group called “Stop the Steal,” which was spreading #SharpieGate and other conspiracy theories.  

“The group was organized around the delegitimization of the election process and we saw worrying calls for violence from some members of the group,” Facebook said in a statement.

In states including Arizona and Michigan, Trump supporters have gathered to protest poll workers who are still counting votes, often repeating conspiracy theories spread on social media. Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said on Twitter that she and her staff had been threatened and harrassed. 

Mashable reached out to Facebook for more information about the hashtag search ban.

There is a workaround to the ban. Users can find other posts mentioning #StopTheSteal and #SharpieGate by simply removing the hashtag from the search. Facebook will then still pull up posts that contain the #StopTheSteal and #SharpieGate hashtags.

Mashable