Meta shares approach to protect election disinformation in Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) Secretary Umar Hameed held a meeting with representatives of Facebook-owner Meta Platforms.

The secretary briefed on the election commission’s actions regarding elections and media. Meta showed videos to the ECP regarding violence during elections and misinformation, F

Meta emphasized the participation of women, youth, people with disabilities, transgender people, and other marginalized groups in the electoral process.

The ECP said the company agreed to translate Facebook community standards into Urdu and regional languages to combat polarization.

The election commission said the meeting is an important step forward in strengthening Pakistan’s democratic process for the upcoming general elections.

Earlier, Meta held an interaction with a group of journalists and shared updates on how it will help keep Pakistan’s communities safe and protect the integrity of upcoming general elections through its proactive approach.

The proactive approach includes forming an election operations team, developing stronger policies to address harmful content and networks, combating misinformation; increasing transparency for political ads, and driving digital literacy and civic education programs.

“Over the years, we have developed a comprehensive approach to how elections play out on our platforms. We continue to invest significantly on efforts and resources to connect people to reliable information about voting, while combating misinformation, hate speech, and voter interference.”

“We are drawing on our global experiences and inputs from experts, as well as coordinating with local election bodies, to help preserve the integrity of elections around the world, including here in Pakistan.” said Alice Budisatrijo, Head of Misinformation Policy for Meta Asia Pacific,

For Pakistan’s upcoming general election, Meta has a dedicated election operations team comprising subject matter experts who are deeply familiar with the local country context to help monitor and respond to emerging risks in real time – including Pakistani nationals who speak the local language.

“We’re tackling abuse on several fronts, including fighting inauthentic behaviour, limiting the spread of misinformation, expanding our fact-checking capability and increasing transparency around the ads people see on Facebook”, she added.

Other initiatives from Meta to support election integrity in Pakistan and its communities include voter education. She said Meta supported a digital civic education campaign in collaboration with the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), PakVoter and Shehri Pakistan, to promote information about voter rights and address key election-related digital literacy topics such as tackling misinformation, being respectful in communication, and staying safe online.

With respect to third-party fact-checking partnerships, she said Meta will continue to work with AFP and Soch Fact Check in Pakistan who review and rate viral misinformation in English and Urdu.

Meta launched its digital literacy flagship program ‘We Think Digital’ (available in English and Urdu) in Pakistan in 2020 to empower people in Pakistan with digital literacy skills and promote responsible digital citizenship.  Meta also shared its initiatives around supporting community safety in Pakistan.

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