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Business InsiderOct 03, 2023
EU Elections: Meta Readies Team to Counter Disinformation
Image copyright:Â Hollie Adams/Stringer/Getty Images News via Getty Images
The Facts
Social media giant Meta on Monday announced plans to tackle misinformation and artificial intelligence (AI) risks in the run-up to European Parliament elections in June.
The owner of Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and WhatsApp will reportedly deploy its intelligence, data science, engineering, research, operations, content policy, and legal experts to battle election interference.
The Spin
Pro-establishment narrative
Meta's actions show other social media behemoths that going hand-in-hand with democracies is the right way forward in a world teeming with various threats to government systems that value free will and choice. Though fact-checking is a small part of the larger role platforms can play in safeguarding sacred electoral processes, the company is doing the appropriate thing by taking responsibility as a stakeholder in the society under threat.
Establishment-critical narrative
Meta, a firm that boasts around 3B users across different platforms, has failed to protect users from misinformation. In the 2020 US election, for instance, it allowed — inadvertently or otherwise — the false narrative of a "hijacked election" to spread via Facebook and Instagram. It even displayed ads questioning the election results. The company has much to answer for, and it remains to be seen whether this new commitment will result in Meta effectively quashing disinformation.
Right narrative
Most people probably want to feel safe from the risks of AI, but giving Big Tech, and thus their friends on the Left, the power to oversee election-related information will not ensure freedom or fairness. The companies pledging to safeguard democracy are the same ones that suppressed the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 US elections and kicked Conservatives off social media for their political views. They should not be given any further power.