Facebook Announces Election Partnership With The Atlantic Council

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Facebook has announced a partnership with the Atlantic Council to help identify election-related threats and disinformation campaigns from around the world.

In its effort to prevent its platform from being used for abuse during elections, Facebook is doing a lot to make sure it can effectively block fake accounts which it says are a significant source of misinformation and bad ads. In this vein, the company is doubling the number of people who work on safety and security and has invested heavily in AI as well. But that’s not all; Facebook also works with “outside experts, governments and other companies” to try to solve these challenges.

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After recently announcing an independent commission to fund and research the impact of social media on society, Facebook is now partnering with the Atlantic Council to help identify election-related “emerging threats and disinformation campaigns from around the world.” In a recent post announcing the partnership, Katie Harbath, Facebook’s Global Politics and Government Outreach Director explained that “experts from their Digital Forensic Research Lab will work closely” with Facebook’s “security, policy and product teams” to be able to succeed.

Facebook will now use the Atlantic Council’s Digital Research Unit Monitoring Missions during elections to help monitor for misinformation or foreign interference in elections.

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Facebook hopes that this will help it “more effectively identify gaps” in its existing systems, by increasing the number of “eyes and ears” it has working on pre-empting such issues. Harbath also explained that Facebook “will also use the Atlantic Council’s Digital Research Unit Monitoring Missions during elections and other highly sensitive moments.” This will help it monitor for misinformation or “foreign interference” on a local level within a specific geographic area. Finally, it will help better educate citizens to be able to spot these more easily.