ISLAMABAD: Meta, formerly known as Facebook, on Wednesday unveiled its strategy to protect general election integrity and support community safety in Pakistan, through its proactive approach, including developing stronger policies to address harmful content and networks, combating misinformation and increasing transparency for political advertisements.
Alice Budisatrijo, Head of Misinformation Policy for Meta, Asia Pacific briefing media persons said that over the years, they have developed a comprehensive approach to how elections play out on its platforms.
The organisation also announced that it wants people to know who is trying to influence them through ads on Facebook. Political advertisers must complete the authorisation process, confirm their identity, confirm their location and fill out a disclaimer for their ads, the company added.
In addition to this the company representative stated that when anyone, including a public figure, is harassed via private messages, they protect them against repeated, unwanted contact, attacks through negative physical descriptions, content sexualising another adult, claims about sexual activity except those that contain criminal allegations and many other bullying violations.
“We continue to invest significantly on efforts and resources to connect people to reliable information about voting while combating misinformation, hate speech, and voter interference. We are drawing on our global experiences and inputs from experts, as well as, coordinating with local election bodies, to help preserve the integrity of elections around the world, including here in Pakistan,” she added.
For Pakistan’s upcoming general election, Meta has a dedicated election operations team comprising subject matter experts who are deeply familiar with the local country context to help monitor and respond to emerging risks in real-time - including Pakistani nationals who speak the local language.
Meta shared updates on how it will help keep Pakistan’s communities safe and protect the integrity of the upcoming Pakistan’s general election through its proactive approach, which includes forming an election operations team; developing stronger policies to address harmful content and networks; combating misinformation; increasing transparency for political ads, and driving digital literacy and civic education programmes.
“We are tackling abuse on several fronts, including fighting inauthentic behaviour, limiting the spread of misinformation, expanding our fact-checking capability and increasing transparency around the ads people see on Facebook,” Meta representatives added.
Other initiatives from Meta to support election integrity in Pakistan and its communities include voter education. Meta supported a digital civic education campaign in collaboration with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), PakVoter and Shehri Pakistan, to promote information about voter rights and address key election-related digital literacy topics such as tackling misinformation, being respectful in your communication, and staying safe online, third-party fact-checking partnerships. “We continue to work with AFP and Soch Fact Check in Pakistan who review and rate viral misinformation in English and Urdu, digital literacy program.”
Meta launched its digital literacy flagship program “We Think Digital” (available in English and Urdu) in Pakistan in 2020 to empower people in Pakistan with digital literacy skills and promote responsible digital citizenship
Furthermore, Meta also shared its initiatives around supporting community safety in Pakistan.
“We’re committed to providing a platform that helps people safely connect and engage with their communities. We will continue working with our partners to support voter education campaigns, digital literacy programs and dissemination of safety tools and resources in the lead up to, during and after the elections,” said Dr Priyanka Bhalla, Safety Policy Manager for Meta, Asia Pacific.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023
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