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Facebook has left Google behind by running maximum number of political advertisements ahead of the 2019 general elections. Facebook ran over 51,000 political advertisements over the course of two months, starting February 2019. This has left Google far behind which ran 830 political ads between February 19 and April 5. According to an ad transparency report released by Google on April 4, Google spent around ₹3.76 crore during those 45 days in India for political advertisements. Facebook is also ahead of microblogging site Twitter in running political advertisements according to the ad transparency report released by Twitter in March. The report also revealed that no politician or political party has used Twitter to advertise. Considering Facebook 300 million users in India as opposed to the 35 million Twitter users in the country, it has become a prime site for political advertising. However, this also makes it apparently susceptible to the spread of misinformation. Political parties like BJP have spent around ₹1.5 crore and ₹1.2 crore on platforms like Facebook and Google, respectively, for political ads, outdoing all other political parties. Congress has allocated around ₹5.6 lakh on Facebook and ₹50,000 on Google for ads.

WhatsApp has launched a tipline to submit rumours and uncertain information. It is the latest step by the instant messaging platform to curb the spread of fake news in India ahead of general elections.

WhatsApp will now allow users to choose whether they want to be added to groups on the platform. The move is especially significant ahead of general elections when social media platforms are important for political campaigns. This new feature will ask people to seek the consent of a particular user before adding them on a group.

With just a week to go for the general elections, Facebook and Facebook-owned messaging app WhatsApp have become factories for fake news, according to a news report. A lot of activities are being run on Facebook where names of Pages, Groups and Accounts have been renamed to push a particular political agenda. Such activities of renaming pages have become common and artificial intelligence algorithms are not able to handle such a huge volume in a country where users of Facebook are around 30 crore. WhatsApp, on the other hand, has been a victim of fake news where 87,000 active groups are targeting millions for fake news forwards. Although Facebook has hit many fake pages and accounts linked to Congress and BJP, but there is still a lot more that needs to be done.

The new feature introduced by WhatsApp called 'Checkpoint Tipline' is not a helpline number. It is a data-gathering research project which will help WhatsApp understand how misinformation spreads. According to Proto, which is a start-up WhatsApp has partnered with for its Checkpoint Tipline initiative, the service is not a helpline but a research project. However, it is too late for WhatsApp to spot and take actions through this project as the first phase of voting begins from April 11.

Facebook content moderators in India are facing a situation of working in high-pressure jobs for very little money, according to an investigative report by Reuters. Content moderators are hired on a contractual basis for a job by Genpact in Hyderabad which requires them to review around 2,000 posts on Instagram and Facebook over an eight-hour shift, which means they spend roughly four minutes on each post, all for low pay. Salary slips indicate that the entry level payment for such jobs is ₹1 lakh annually, in addition to transport facilities to-and-fro from their homes. Facebook has denied allegations made by their Hyderabad-based employees and said that the benefits which come along with their salaries make the actual salary much higher. Facebook also said that it is making several changes which includes drafting a new code of conduct for outsourcing partners and introducing an annual compliance audit of its vendor policies, to improve the condition of its reviewers.

The Parliamentary panel on information technology has asked Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp to ensure that the platforms are not misused to create division, incite violence, pose a threat to India's security, or allow the interference of foreign powers in the upcoming general elections. Citing tension between India and Pakistan in the aftermath of the Pulwama attack, the panel asked Facebook to ensure that there is no leakage of information through social media. The panel also told Facebook that protecting citizens' data was as much a priority as national security, and asked the company to speak of what it will do to meet its objectives in the next ten days. Joel Kaplan, vice-president of global public policy of Facebook, accepted that there is a need for corrective measures an that the company was ready to put it in place. During the panel discussion, Kaplan was also accompanied by Ajit Mohan, managing director of Facebook India. Kaplan also stated that the company would be in touch with Election Commission and ministries on information related to identity and location related to advertisers. All information related to political campaign would be put up on a special web page for users, the company said.

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 Indian media organisations to flag stories in Hindi, English and other regional languages. He said that once a piece of information is flagged as false information, it's visibility on the Facebook newsfeed reduces by around 80 per cent. It is noteworthy that Facebook-owned messaging platform WhatsApp has been under constant scrutiny by the Indian government to take adequate measures to prevent the spread of fake news and misinformation ever since the spread of false information had allegedly led to various instances of mob lynching last year. Following this, WhatsApp limited the forwarding of message to from 256 to five recipients at a time. Social media companies have also presented a "Voluntary Code of Ethics for the General Elections 2019" to the Election monitoring body, which is a new requirement this year.

Advertisers will be required to provide verifiable public contact details before they can run political campaigns on Facebook, the company has announced. This is being done to ensure that there is accountability of all kinds of advertisements. This move is being seen as an additional measure ahead of the European elections in May, when citizens from across the EU will vote in new MEPs. On March 27, Facebook launched political advertising restrictions in the EU27, following partial rollouts in six countries including the UK,US and India. These restrictions require advertisers of "political" topics, which are defined in a different manner in each nation, to prove that they are targeting the country they are living in. It also requires them to store all their adverts in public databases for seven years, in addition to the information about targeting, spend and reach. Facebook also requires its users to provide either their phone numbers or email address through which interested parties can contact the advertisers while also allowing them to write what they want as a source of funding. Users who advertise at their personal level will have the option of not entering the information. Instead, Facebook will verify and publish their names.

WhatsApp has taken quite a number of steps to prevent the spread of fake news, especially ahead of the upcoming general elections. However, the company has agreed to take more steps to make the platform fully secure from spreading fake news and misinformation. After taking over as head of India operations of the Facebook-owned messaging platform early this year, country head Abhijit Bose in his first statement said that the company strongly believes that private messaging is fundamental to safety. WhatsApp was under pressure from the government over dozens of lynching incidents that were attributed to rumors spread on the platform. Since then, the Facebook-owned social media messaging service has taken several steps including limiting the number of messages to five and appointing a grievance officer for the country. The platform has also introduced a new feature called WhatsApp Payments which would make use of UPI (unified payments interface) and allow easy transfer of money from one user to another or to their favourite merchants.