Facebook pledges to support integrity of general election

[webfact 35,779]

Facebook pledges to support integrity of general election

By ASINA PORNWASIN 
THE NATION

 

 

FACEBOOK has promised to help ensure the integrity of the Thai election by providing supporting tools and related efforts.
 

This is part of the social-media giant’s recent decision to help protect and preserve the integrity of elections across the world by blocking disruptive messages spread through the platform. Facebook has previously been used to disrupt polls and referendums in several countries. 

 

Katie Harbath, director of Facebook’s global politics and government division, said the social platform has put in place five measures to protect election integrity, namely, cracking down on fake accounts, reducing the distribution of false news, making advertisement more transparent, disrupting bad actors and supporting an informed electorate. The social-media platform has doubled the number of people working on safety and security issues to 30,000. 

 

Facebook currently has some 52 million active users in Thailand and it is expected to be one of the most influential social-media platforms in the upcoming national election. 

 

Facebook will dedicate teams to work on all upcoming elections to help detect and prevent malicious posts being shared via the site, including those in Thai and other languages. 

 

 

Blocking ‘inauthentic’ behaviour

 

“We are absolutely committed to preventing all kinds of inauthentic behaviour on our platform, be it misinformation, misrepresentation, phishing, bullying, violence, harassment, or interfering with elections,” Harbath said. “Combating false news is crucial to the integrity and safety of Thailand’s election, but we cannot do this alone. We believe it requires a concerted effort across the industry, civil society and the government.” 

 

Facebook will use both automatic and human processes to identify fake accounts, with its security systems running in the background at millions of times per second. It is also using artificial intelligence and has so far managed to identify and remove over 99.6 per cent of fake accounts In the second and third quarters of 2018 alone, around 1.5 billion fake accounts have been removed from Facebook.

 

 

The social-media giant says it is committed to tackling false news, takes action against those who repeatedly violate its policies, is reducing the spread of problematic content and informs the community through additional content.

 

“We are exploring how to promote awareness and share our ‘Tips to Spot False News’ in partnership with local organisations to consumers through a public service announcement both on and off the platform,” Harbath added. “We will host a training session for our Thai news partners and leading media organisations to share best practices for newsrooms, including elections coverage, case studies and highlights.” 

 

To make advertising more transparent, she said anyone can now view active Facebook Page ads across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger and its partner network. People can also learn more about the pages, even if they are not advertised. For instance, they can see any recent name change or date the page was created. 

 

Facebook aims to disrupt bad actors through detection, taking action and adapting. Harmful types of election-related activity are flagged up for manual review. Security teams investigate suspicious activity and take down violating accounts. 

 

The platform has also been supporting an informed electorate through the election journey including registering to vote, making a voting plan, voting and getting friends to do the same and connecting with new representatives. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30362750

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-01-23

[yellowboat 10,752]

Who watches Facebook to see of they are ?   The only thing that bothers me about some average Thais is their complete reliance on Facebook.   Facebook seems to think there will actually be an election.

[Lungstib 5,181]

3 hours ago, webfact said:

The social-media giant says it is committed to tackling false news,

When that news is coming out of the mouth of government leaders and officials who have the power to close Facebook's offices and disrupt its work it will not be easy to react. Both Trump and Prayuth are fine examples of leaders who make false claims and statements almost daily. What they say gets printed regardless of its veracity.

[mikebell 7,809]

27 minutes ago, yellowboat said:

Who watches Facebook to see of they are ?   The only thing that bothers me about some average Thais is their complete reliance on Facebook.

This is a bit contradictory.  The average Thai spends hours a day gazing at FB.  Police are stung into action by crimes reported on FB - that's how they get through the tedium of sitting doing nothing during seven dangerous days whilst drawing overtime.

[Captain_Bob 552]

Before anyone can support "integrity of general election", there needs to actually be some integrity. I will leave it at that to avoid being accused of fake news. 

[lamyai3 3,436]

5 hours ago, webfact said:

Facebook pledges to support integrity of general election

Their role in elections and referendums in much more important countries recently does not inspire confidence. 

[neeray 5,004]

33 minutes ago, Captain_Bob said:

Before anyone can support "integrity of general election", there needs to actually be some integrity. I will leave it at that to avoid being accused of fake news. 

And there actually needs to be an "election".

[Father Fintan Stack 7,516]

1 hour ago, mikebell said:

The average Thai spends hours a day gazing at FB. 

Facebook is a cancer on modern society.

[DrTuner 7,323]

And who would be moderating facebooks Thai content? Thais ( read junta puppets ) of course, as nobody else knows the language. All hope is lost.

[RickTik 136]

Hmmmm ... I would take that Facebook pledge "with a grain of salt". Things do seem to be improving on Facebook. However, based on the fake news I still get in my "news feed", Facebook is not "there" yet.

The good news is that things look good for Thailand. I think Prayuth wins the election because he has done a good job. Thailand has been stabilized, but there is more work to do.

Prayuth, on restoring cannabis civil liberties - it is time. Also, that air pollution in Bangkok sincerely needs to be dealt with. Brother, let's get it done. 

People, don't sweat the changed election date.

The main thing is that it is an honest election.

Besides:

 

Edited January 23 by RickTik

[seahorse 2,087]

Facebook, that bastion of integrity. 

[chama 640]

Facebook will say anything you want to hear but in the end they will go to the highest bidder.

[Bluespunk 42,447]

Do not trust anything zuckerberg’s monster says. 

 

They lie, lie and lie. 

 

Then they lie some more.