Meta is ready for the March 31 elections! Combating misinformation and transparency are at the forefront

Meta Turkey and Azerbaijan Public Policy Manager Sezen Yeşil announced that specialized teams have been formed to prevent illicit interference during the Local Administration General Elections to be held on March 31. She stated that as part of these measures, Meta has implemented comprehensive safeguards on its platforms regarding the elections.

Stating that they have intensified their efforts to combat misinformation and manipulation alongside artificial intelligence and digital techniques, Yeşil said that they help people understand if advertisements related to social issues, elections, or politics on Facebook or Instagram are digitally created or altered.

ADVERTISING MEASURES

Yeşil noted the following:

"We require advertisers to disclose if advertisements related to social issues, elections, or politics contain a realistic image, video, or realistic audio recording that has been digitally created or altered. When an advertiser discloses that the content has been digitally created or altered, we as Meta add information to the ad. This information also appears in the Ad Library. If we determine that an advertiser has not made the required disclosure, we reject the ad, and if the failure to disclose is repeated, the advertiser faces sanctions."

Yeşil stated that they remove content that violates principles, whether created by artificial intelligence or humans, and noted that their independent fact-checking partners evaluate and rate viral misinformation.

Emphasizing that they do not allow an ad to be published if it is evaluated as "false, altered, partially false, or lacking context," Yeşil said, "Thanks to our fact-checking network consisting of nearly 100 partners worldwide, we review and evaluate misinformation circulating in more than 60 languages. Two of these partners are in Turkey and provide support in Turkish."

Yeşil emphasized that they are also striving to support efforts to increase digital media literacy in society in Turkey, explaining that with the "#DiscoverTheTruth Reels" campaign they launched with the "Dogrula.org" team on March 11, which will last for 8 weeks, they are sharing easy and fun tips on how to reach accurate information.

Stating that in addition to constant updates to their policies regarding elections and proactive threat detection, they prevent interference in elections and voters by removing content that violates "Community Standards," Yeşil added:

"THERE ARE TWO ORGANIZATIONS PROVIDING VERIFICATION SERVICES VIA WHATSAPP"

"We have formed specialized teams to prevent interference in the elections. Thanks to these teams, we have focused on coordinated inauthentic behavior, namely pages, groups, and accounts that attempt to interfere with public debate using sophisticated networks. When we detect such activity on our platforms, we take action, especially in cases related to elections. On Facebook and Instagram, action is taken against content that violates 'Community Standards,' including spam and misinformation, which could contribute to the risk of interfering with people's participation in elections. Furthermore, people using WhatsApp worldwide can report potential misinformation to trusted fact-checking organizations in the country where the message was shared. When a message is sent directly to these fact-checking organizations via WhatsApp, the organizations respond by sharing a fact-check article. There are also two organizations in Turkey that provide verification services via WhatsApp."

Emphasizing that they have advanced security operations to dismantle manipulation campaigns and identify emerging threats, Yeşil stated that the Ad Library is one of these operations. She noted that all political and election-based advertisements are added to the Ad Library for 7 years and are accessible in a transparent manner.

It was stated that work is constantly being done to increase the transparency of advertisements and the integrity of elections on Facebook and Instagram. It was expressed that measures to support reliability and legitimacy have been taken for those who want to publish advertisements related to social issues, elections, or politics.

Yeşil stated that advertisers who want to publish an ad related to elections or politics must prove who they are and where they live. In this direction, she reported that labels showing who the advertiser is are added to posts in line with transparency principles.

In addition to adding controls that allow people to see fewer ads related to elections and politics, it was stated that "When users use these controls, they do not see labeled ads." Furthermore, it was stated that it is required for advertisers to comply with both the Community Standards applied to all content types and the Meta Advertising Standards applied to paid advertisements.

News Source: AA