Meta – the parent company of Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp – have outlined its plan to fight against misinformation ahead of the federal election in the coming months.
Head of public policy for Meta Australia, Josh Machin, said the tech giant and its platforms will strengthen fact-checking tools and enforce tough rules around political advertising.
The company has expanded its third-party fact-checking program in Australia to include RMIT FactLab, Agence France Presse (AFP) and Australian Associated Press (AAP), as well as First Draft to monitor misinformation and provide training for journalists on identifying misinformation.
Meta is also set to provide one-off grants to all its fact-checkers to increase their capacity in the lead up to the election.
“When they rate something as false, we significantly reduce its distribution so fewer people see it. We also notify people who try to share something rated as false and add a warning label with a link to a debunking article,” Machin said, in a report by AdNews.
The social media giant has also introduced mandatory transparency measures for political ads which will including a strict authorisation process with government-issued photo ID, and a “paid for by” disclaimer on such ads.
“It also includes social issue ads that seek to influence public opinion through discussion, debate or advocacy for or against important topics, such as civil and social rights, crime, environmental politics, education or immigration,” Machin said.
“We launched these requirements for social issue ads last year, before the first possible election date, to ensure it was in place for the Australian federal election. Any political, electoral or social issue ads on Facebook and Instagram that do not have the correct authorisation or disclaimers will be removed from the platform and archived in a public Ad Library for seven years,” he added.
Meta will also work with APP bring back the Check the Facts, a nationwide media literacy campaign that aims to aims to help inform and empower Australians to understand, identify and prevent the spread of misinformation, as well as how to support those close to them to do the same.
The campaign will begin in April and is set to be translated into Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese and Arabic.
Meta will also run notifications for users aged over 18 to encourage them to vote and direct them to reliable voting information.
“As we get closer to the Australian election, we’ll stay vigilant to emerging threats and take additional steps if necessary to prevent abuse on our platform while also empowering people in Australia to use their voice by voting,” concluded Machin.
The new plan to fight the dissemination of misinformation comes after the social media company was criticised for misinformation spread across the platform in past elections.
Machin said: “With the Australian Election set to take place in the coming months, Meta has been preparing for them for a long time. We’ve been involved in more than 200 elections around the world since 2017, and we’ve learned key lessons from each one about where to focus our teams, technologies, and investments so they will have the greatest impact.”