SINGAPORE: Facebook is to set up two new regional operations centres focused on monitoring election-related content in its Dublin and Singapore offices, the company said on Monday (Jan 28).
The world's largest social network has been under pressure from regulators around the globe to fight spread of misinformation on its platform.
AdvertisementThe two regional operations centres will help Facebook's global teams "better work across regions in the run-up to elections", the company said.
"These teams will add a layer of defence against fake news, hate speech and voter suppression, and will work cross-functionally with our threat intelligence, data science, engineering, research, community operations, legal and other teams," Facebook added.
Facebook will in late March also launch new tools to counter online political meddling in the European elections, as part of a campaign to regain trust after scandals such as its work with Cambridge Analytica.
The US tech giant's vice president, former British deputy prime minister Nick Clegg, said the methods would help "make political advertising on Facebook more transparent".
AdvertisementAdvertisementThe new rules will require a wide range of political ads linked to the European elections on May 23 to 26 to be specifically authorised and tagged with a clear "paid for by" disclaimer.
Clegg said these tools will also cover so-called issue ads "which don't explicitly back one candidate or political party but which focus on highly politicised topics like immigration".
Those ads will then be stored on servers for up to seven years, along with the details of their reach and specific data on the buyer of the advertising.
The measures come after a nightmare year for Facebook, marked by a series of scandals over data protection and privacy and concerns that the leading social network had been manipulated by foreign interests for political purposes.
Criticism of Facebook has included allegations that the social network was being used as a platform to spread divisive or misleading information, as was the case during the 2016 election that put US President Donald Trump in the White House.
Facebook ads have also been at the centre of the FBI investigation over Russia's alleged meddling in the US election of Trump and suspicions are rife that the Kremlin has intervened in votes across Europe.
Let's block ads! (Why?)
More...