Facebook and Instagram will adopt a series of measures to combat disinformation ahead of the October elections in Brazil, including the almost immediate removal of "fake messages"reported this Friday the company Meta.
Artificial intelligence will accompany in real time the "sign set" identified by the algorithm as "fake messages" or who violate electoral legislation on Facebook and Instagram to be deleted from the authors’ profile "almost immediately"a source from Meta, a firm that controls both networks, told Efe.
reported cases and "more complex" They will be analyzed by a multidisciplinary center of computer specialists and experts in electoral legislation and other areas, similar to the one that operated in the 2018 elections, the source said.
In a statement, the company indicated that it invested in equipment, technological tools and alliances "to help protect Brazilian elections" and reiterated its collaboration with electoral authorities and independent verification agencies to reduce the spread of "fake news".
With the "approximation of the elections"which will be held in its first round on October 2, "we will activate our Operations Center for the Elections"which will identify "in real time" the "potential threats" and will facilitate "quick response"Meta stressed.
The "content removal" that encourage people to stop voting -which in the country is mandatory for people between 18 and 70 years old-, that contain "hate speech" either "interfere with voting" and the exclusion of false profiles, even without having been reported, are among the measures adopted, he mentioned.
A seal with access to the Superior Electoral Tribunal (TSE) page on Facebook and Instagram posts and an extrajudicial channel to deal with complaints of electoral crimes on WhatsApp are other mechanisms implemented by Meta, which has already had friction with the president. Jair Bolsonaro.
In April, Bolsonaro met with WhatsApp representatives, who offered explanations about the decision to postpone broadcasting on the mass messaging application with the new tool. "communities"until after the elections, in a decision that had been criticized by the president.
The TSE, which has been the object of constant criticism by Bolsonaro, has promoted agreements in recent months with the main social networks to stop the spread of false news in the process for the presidential elections next October.
The calls "fake news" they played a crucial role in the 2018 elections, which resulted in the victory of the leader of the extreme right.
The electoral campaigns of 2018, mainly that of Bolsonaro, were the subject of investigation by the TSE and complaints about the massive spread of false news, such as the one carried out by investigative journalist Patricia Campos Mello, from the newspaper Folha de Sao Paulo and winner of the King of Spain Award.
Already as president, some publications by Bolsonaro and allied politicians have been removed from social networks, such as the YouTube video of a recent meeting with some forty ambassadors in which the president insisted on his criticism of the electronic voting system, used since 1996 without proven fraud.
