Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. have had their hands full over the last 48 hours trying to combat the spread of misinformation about the U.S. election.

Today, Facebook removed a group called “Stop the Steal” that supported President Trump’s claim of corruption in the counting of ballots. Facebook said the group was promoting a “delegitimization of the election process” and some members were advocating violence.

In just two days, the group amassed more than 360,000 members. According to Mother Jones, it was created by Republican operatives who had connections to the Tea Party.

Some of their claims were that voters were being asked to vote with “Sharpies” to make ballots illegible and other ballots were being thrown into the trash. The group also called for “boots on the ground to protect the integrity of the vote,” something Facebook saw as threatening language.

“In line with the exceptional measures that we are taking during this period of heightened tension, we have removed the Group ‘Stop the Steal,’ which was creating real-world events,” a spokesperson for Facebook said.

Facebook said today that all dubious information relating to the election will be demoted. That includes content relating to election fraud, and any content that calls for people to mass in the streets.

The company has also blocked the hashtags #StopTheSteal and #Sharpiegate. “As vote counting continues, we are seeing more reports of inaccurate claims about the election,” Facebook said. As promised, Facebook said that before people share certain posts they are being directed to reliable resources, an initiative that was adding more “friction” on the platform.

Twitter has also been busy trying to add some friction to posts on its platform. President Trump has posted a lot about election fraud over the last two days, and ranted about it this evening in an appearance. But on his feed right now, there’s a label that reads, “Some or all of the content shared in this Tweet is disputed and might be misleading about an election or other civic process.” It’s reported that 38% of his posts have been flagged so far.

“This action is in line with our Civic Integrity Policy, and as is standard with this warning, we will significantly restrict engagements on this Tweet,” Twitter said. The company also announced that if Trump loses the presidency, he will receive no more special treatment designated for world leaders.

“A critical function of our service is providing a place where people can openly and publicly respond to their leaders and hold them accountable,” a Twitter spokesman explained. “With this in mind, there are certain cases where it may be in the public’s interest to have access to certain tweets, even if they would otherwise be in violation of our rules.”

Photo: Phil Roeder/Flickr