Facebook is planning to start an operations centre in Delhi that will monitor election-related content on its platform to prevent the spread of fake news ahead of the upcoming Lok Sabha election, reports Mint.
Shivnath Thukral, director, public policy, India and South Asia, Facebook told the publication that the centre will coordinate with the company’s headquarters at Menlo Park (California) and other offices in Dublin and Singapore, to monitor election content round the clock.
He said this centre will be modeled around the US centre that was launched ahead of the US midterm elections and will comprise of several cross-functional teams that will look into various aspects of the platform such as content, policy and legal. Some of these teams will work closely with the Election Commission, Thukral added.
This move comes after a parliamentary committee on information technology had asked the social networking giant to be more prompt to the issues flagged by the Election Commission, ET reported last week.
Yesterday, the chief election commissioner Sunil Arora said that Facebook and other major social media platforms like Google, Twitter, WhatsApp, and ShareChat have committed to accept only pre-certified political advertisements and share details on political advertising spends on its platform with the election commission. These platforms will also adhere to the “silence period” that comes into effect 48 hours before the polls.
Read: On Facebook, BJP takes giant early lead in ad spend
Facebook has been stepping up its election integrity efforts in India over the past few months. It began with identity confirmation in December. Last month, it announced further steps relating to ad transparency, introducing two disclaimer categories and labels for political advertisers, with policy enforcement beginning on February 21.
The company also rolled out its political ad library that archives all Indian political ads along with audience demographics and funding details for the past seven years. In addition, the social network tapped former journalist Natasha Jog as the company’s election integrity lead for India and strengthened its third-party fact-checking initiative by adding five new partners last month.
Read: Indian elections top priority for Zuckerberg and Facebook: Katie Harbath
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