Facebook offers to curb fake news during 2019 Lok Sabha polls

NEW DELHI: Social media giant Facebook has offered to deploy its fact-checking systems in all future elections in India, including the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, to check the circulation of fake news aimed at influencing and misleading voters.

Katie Harbath, Facebook's Global Manager (Politics & Government Outreach), had personally assured chief election commissioner O P Rawat during an interaction in Seoul a couple of months ago that Facebook would track false campaigns and fake news mass-circulated through its network during polls, by voluntarily running a fact-check. Content found fake and based on twisted facts would be blocked or prevented from being forwarded.

Sources said the Facebook self-verification system would subject content that is circulated beyond a point to automatic fact-checking. Posts that are flagged by multiple users and institutions like the Election Commission as "fake" and "motivated" would be taken up on priority for a verification of facts, well before they go viral.


"Once it is confirmed that the news circulated on Facebook is fake, the social media giant may either pull down the content or post a message to users that the said content is not based on facts," said an EC official. Sources said Harbath had informed EC in Seoul that the fact-checking systems were activated by Facebook during the recent Karnataka polls and worked well to stem circulation of fake news. "We at EC tend to believe this as not a single fake news complaint was received by us during the polls in Karnataka," said an EC functionary.

EC believes Facebook would also extend this cooperation to check fake news circulated via WhatsApp, which it now owns. "There must be some way of checking circulation of fake news items and content aimed at misleading potential voters through WhatsApp. Even if the content has end-to-end-encryption, there must be a way of flagging WhatsApp forwards for false content," said a commission functionary.

Sources said EC is also in consultations with Twitter to block fake news posts. "Unlike Facebook, which allows long posts, Twitter uploads must stick to a specified word limit. Hence, it is much simpler for Twitter to run a fact-check and flag/block false content. We are talking to its representatives and hope for cooperation in this regard," an EC officer told TOI.