Meta, the conglomerate that owns prominent social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp, has launched a comprehensive campaign dedicated to combating hate speech and the spread of false information in South Africa. This initiative is in preparation for the May 2024 elections, with the goal of safeguarding the electoral process’s authenticity and credibility.
To achieve this, Meta has devised a suite of transparency tools and established stringent regulations to thwart attempts at election meddling. The company is leveraging its extensive expertise garnered from overseeing the digital aspects of more than two hundred electoral events across the globe. Among its strategies is the implementation of what is considered to be the most expansive program of its kind, involving the collaboration of third-party entities dedicated to fact-checking.
The impetus for such measures can be traced back to an admission made by Meta in March, when it revealed its ongoing cooperation with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa. This collaboration is aimed at inoculating its numerous platforms against their potential misuse as conduits for propagating deceptive information during the electoral period culminating on May 29, 2024.
An integral component of this cooperative endeavor with the IEC is the educational initiative designed to enhance the IEC personnel’s competencies in media literacy and their aptitude for identifying misinformation.
Through this campaign, Meta is diligently working to empower users of its platforms—WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram—not merely to recognize, but also to take action against, deliberately deceptive content. Such misinformation poses a significant threat to the democratic process, particularly in the context of the forthcoming election scheduled for May 29, 2024. The overarching objective of this initiative is to defend the integrity of the election by preventing the dissemination of misleading content that can undermine the public’s trust and the election’s validity.
Balkissa Idé Siddo, who oversees public policy for Sub-Saharan Africa at Meta, has highlighted that while the company employs over 40,000 individuals dedicated to safety and security measures across its platforms, the incorporation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) stands out for its transformative potential. AI is particularly instrumental in bolstering the capacity for generating content, a feature that is especially beneficial for smaller media organizations with limited resources.
In light of the ongoing scrutiny and criticism that social media giants like Meta face for allegedly perpetuating the spread of misinformation to increase user engagement and traffic, the importance of such a campaign cannot be overstated. In response to accusations of granting Netflix access to user data in April, Meta strongly refuted these claims, reinforcing its commitment to user privacy and data security.
Additionally, in a historical trilateral accord signed in July 2023, Meta joined forces with Google and ByteDance (the parent company of TikTok) to collaborate with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) of South Africa. This partnership paved the way for the formation of an independent review committee, which is tasked with examining reported instances of misinformation on these social media platforms. The committee’s function is to advise the IEC on the best courses of action to maintain electoral integrity.
Furthermore, as part of a broader international effort to uphold credible and fair elections, Meta and Google entered into an agreement with the Nigerian government in February 2023. The objective of this alliance is to address and mitigate the challenges posed by fake news during the Nigerian electoral proceedings. Through these collaborative efforts, Meta is not only reinforcing its role in protecting democratic processes but also demonstrating its commitment to fighting the global issue of misinformation in digital spaces.
