Summary
Facebook has claimed to be taking active steps to limit the spread of false news and misinformation ahead of the Indian general elections. The social media giant has taken a number of steps to curb the spread of fake news and flag misinformation which includes blocking fake accounts to employing third-party fact-checking organisations through campaign and voting. Samidh Chakrabarty, Director of Facebook's Product Management for Civic Integrity Division, has said that Facebook has partnered with
Highlights:
- Facebook has partnered with Indian media organisations to flag misinformation in Hindi, English and other regional languages.
- Samidh Chakrabarti, director of Facebook's Product Management for Civic Integrity division, said the company has put in a "tremendous amount of efforts over the last two years" to prepare for the polls, and described the Indian elections a "top priority."
- A flag-checker flags the story to reduce its visibility to about 80 percent on the newsfeed.
- Facebook came under scrutiny after it failed to prevent the spread of false information during the 2016 US elections, when allegations of outside interference resulted in Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg testifying in the US Senate.
- WhatsApp wsa asked by the Indian government to take proactive steps to prevent the spread of fake news after the lynching of around 20 people in separate incidents last year because of the reason.
- Social media companies have presented a "Voluntary Code of Ethics for the General Elections 2019" to the election monitoring body, a new requirement this year. "We are working hard to prevent bad actors from interfering with elections on Facebook," Chakrabarti said, adding that Facebook has tripled the number of people working on safety and security to 30,000.