Facebook and Whatsapp’s parent company Meta will set up a task force to tackle disinformation and the abuse of generative artificial intelligence in the run-up to global elections, including in the EU and India, as per multiple reports.
The widespread use and rapid acceleration of generative AI technologies has posed a significant threat to society, citizens and governments, prompting companies like Meta to take action, particularly in an election year. The Indian government has called deepfakes a “threat to democracy”.
In the EU market, Marco Pancini, Meta’s head of EU affairs, said the “EU-specific Elections Operations Center” would bring together experts from across the company to focus on tackling misinformation, influence operations and risks related to the abuse of AI.
“Ahead of the elections period, we will make it easier for all our fact-checking partners across the EU to find and rate content related to the elections because we recognize that speed is especially important during breaking news events,” Pancini said in a blog post.
“We’ll use keyword detection to group related content in one place, making it easy for fact-checkers to find.”
Meta’s efforts to address the risks posed by AI would include the addition of a feature for people to disclose when they share AI-generated video or audio and possible penalties for noncompliance, as per a Reuters report.
“We already label photorealistic images created using Meta AI, and we are building tools to label AI generated images from Google, OpenAI, Microsoft, Adobe, Midjourney, and Shutterstock that users post to Facebook, Instagram and Threads,” he said.
Meta has also launched a safety campaign ‘Know What’s Real’, in India, to tackle the issue of misinformation online. The campaign aims to raise awareness about the importance of discerning truth from falsehood in the digital age.
The ‘Know What’s Real’ initiative, spanning eight weeks, is geared towards educating users on identifying and addressing misinformation prevalent on WhatsApp and Instagram. By promoting digital best practices and showcasing available safety tools, Meta hopes to empower its user base in navigating the complex landscape of online information.
The company also stated that its fact-checking program in India includes partnerships with 11 independent fact-checking organisations which is one of the largest networks of fact-checking partners globally. It added that these partners have the capabilities to fact check content in 15 Indian languages and English – enabling people to identify, review, verify information and help prevent the spread of misinformation on Meta platforms.
Shivnath Thukral, director, public policy India, Meta, said the ‘Know What’s Real’ campaign is “an extension of our ongoing efforts to prevent the spread of misinformation and serves as a simple safety guide to educate people on the role they can play to combat it.”
Recently, Meta also unveiled a dedicated fact-checking helpline on WhatsApp as part of the company’s effort to deal with the AI-generated content present online and help people connect with verified and credible information.
Read More: Elections 2024: Meta’s awareness campaign ‘Know What’s Real’ to tackle misinformation in India