Facebook and Twitter have hotlines set up for the Democratic presidential campaigns to report any suspicious online trolling activity during Wednesday and Thursday night's debates.
'We will have a dedicated team proactively monitoring for threats as well as investigating any reports of abuse in real time in the lead up to, during and following the debates,' a Facebook spokesperson said on Tuesday
Both companies said they have met with the presidential campaigns, the national parties, the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security ahead of this week's debates and as part of their preparations for the 2020 election.
'We will be protecting the integrity of the conversation around key topics and trends,' a Twitter spokesperson said of the company's monitoring plans for the night.
The debates taking place in Miami this week present the first challenge of the 2020 election for Silicon Valley, which is still dealing with the fallout of online trolling by Russian actors during the last presidential election.
A spokesperson for Facebook noted their 'preparations include scenario planning for ways that bad actors may try to game our systems and bolstering our defenses in response.'
On Wednesday and Thursday night this week a team of engineering, operations, product, data science, policy, and other staff will work out of Facebook’s Menlo Park operations center to watch for any suspicious online activity.