No Winner Declared: Facebook & Instagram Election Notifications

Facebook and Instagram are displaying notifications within their platforms to inform users in the United States that a definitive winner of the 2020 U.S. presidential election has not yet been declared. These notifications appear as prominent pop-ups at the top of both the Facebook and Instagram News Feeds, communicating that “Votes Are Being Counted” and guiding users toward additional election-related information available within the apps.

The wording used in these notifications is consistent across both applications:

“A projected winner for the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election is not yet available. Find further updates and understand the ongoing election process.”

Notably, Facebook and Instagram have included a timestamp on the notification to reflect when it was last updated. For instance, as of 9:57 a.m. EST on November 4, the notification indicated it was last updated at 9:00 a.m. EST.

The inclusion of a timestamp is beneficial because the counting of election results is still in progress—and is expected to continue for several days—and also because President Trump made a premature claim of election victory early Wednesday morning before all votes had been tallied.

TechCrunch reports that Facebook began presenting these notifications at the top of Facebook and Instagram feeds shortly after President Trump posted a statement on Facebook asserting his win. The company also initiated the labeling of posts from both President Trump and Vice President Biden, aligning with the policies it announced prior to Election Day.

On Facebook, President Trump’s post received a label clarifying that initial election night results may differ from the final, certified results, though Facebook did not otherwise limit the post’s visibility.

As previously reported, Facebook had already begun displaying the notifications regarding the lack of a projected winner at the time these labels were implemented.

The timestamp feature is also crucial to address potential caching problems that could cause users to view outdated information until the app is refreshed.

An instance of this occurred on Instagram on November 3, when a caching error resulted in some users seeing a notification stating, “Tomorrow is Election Day,” despite the fact that Election Day had already passed.

Similarly, some users might not immediately see the notification at the top of their Facebook or Instagram Feed until they refresh the application. However, there have been no widespread reports of this issue occurring today.