Experts Believe Efforts By Facebook, WhatsApp To Fight Fake News & Propaganda ¡®Not Enough, But Pertinent¡¯
Internet giants Facebook Google and WhatsApp announced a slew of measures to not let fake news and political propaganda affect the Lok Sabha elections due in May this year. There is a growing concern that political parties and workers may abuse the application using automated tools for mass messaging or spread fake news to sway voters. The internet firms want to ensure that everything is honest and fair just as the world&rsquos largest democracy ...Read More
Recently, internet giants Facebook, Google and WhatsApp announced a slew of measures to not let fake news and political propaganda affect the Lok Sabha elections due in May this year.
In 2018, social media giant Facebook was involved in a massive political data scandal with British data mining firm Cambridge Analytica. To prevent a repeat of such aberrations, Facebook has decided to monitor threats to the upcoming Indian general elections.
WhatsApp, on the other hand, is tightening the noose around the plague of fake news and political spamming. The instant messaging platform said that political parties are not using the platform in the manner that was intended and cautioned them that it will ban accounts if they are found abusing the platform.
India is WhatsApp¡¯s largest market with more than 230 million monthly active users.
There is a growing concern that political parties and workers may abuse the application using automated tools for mass messaging, or spread fake news to sway voters.
For the ruling Bharatiya Janta Party (BJP) and opposition Congress, WhatsApp has become an indispensable tool and more often than not, the parties accuse each other of propagating fake news while denying they do so themselves.
AFP
Experts believe that the moves announced by internet giants are a pertinent step in the right direction but there¡¯s not enough that can be done to uproot the complication.
¡°The moves announced by Facebook, WhatsApp and Google are not sufficient, but they are one part of the solution of the larger issue. There are websites which create fake news, there are entities which organise and publish fake news, they actively create and participate in campaigns, and then there are entities, which only exist to promote such content. Promotion is an important aspect of spreading fake news and it¡¯s a welcome move that there¡¯s a crackdown on such entities,¡± says Nikhil Pahwa, a New Delhi-based digital rights activist.
The internet firms want to ensure that everything is honest and fair just as the world¡¯s largest democracy gears up for elections.
Not too long ago, the Indian government was mulling over ways to block the public at large from social media sites if national security or public order were under threat, including to cushion against unrest during the course of the elections.
Also Read: Ahead Of 2019 Lok Sabha Polls, Facebook & Google Unite To Scrutinise Political Advertisements
Facebook has announced that it would launch a digital library of political advertisements.
¡°In the past, we¡¯ve not seen political advertisements being transparent ¨C meaning how much money is being spent online on ads. Now there are some limitations that the Election Commission has put in terms of money spent. In the traditional media industry, all this expenditure is not documented. Advertising on digital platforms is not typically a cash activity and hence it becomes easier to track the flow of money,¡± adds Pahwa.
On December 6, 2018, Facebook said that anyone who wants to run political ads in India will must disclose their name and location.
¡°By authorising advertisers and bringing more transparency to ads, we can better defend against foreign interference in India¡¯s elections,¡± Sarah Clark Schiff, product manager at Facebook, said in a post announcing the move.
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In November 2018, a BBC study found that BJP supporters share more fake news than others. The study also noted that Congress party leader Rahul Gandhi did not follow anti-BJP amplifiers on Twitter, prime minister Narendra Modi followed many pro-BJP amplifiers, including sources that have published fake news.
The researchers found 34 Twitter handles in all being the sources of fake news, making the vast majority of them pro-BJP accounts.
Read more: Ahead Of 2019 Lok Sabha Polls, Facebook & Google Unite To Scrutinise Political Advertisements
Sunil Abraham, Executive Director of Bangalore based research organisation, the Centre for Internet and Society, said that the approach by internet firms is limited. ¡°The number of personnel deployed to monitor such activities is limited and the information being given out is vast.¡±
Abraham says that there¡¯s not enough transparency in political advertisements and open data.
¡°Absolute transparency will only come with the implementation of Application Programming Interface (API) where an automated information is generated for the expenses incurred by a political party or a third party for advertisements.¡±
The latest data by Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) revealed last year that the BJP became the number one advertiser on television in the run up to Assembly Elections in five states. It dislodged Vimal Pan Masala. In November 2018, BJP was followed by Netflix and Trivago.
Over the past few years, fake news and political propaganda have taken a protuberant discourse. The fake news phenomenon in India cannot be discussed without taking into the account the roles WhatsApp, Facebook and other social media platforms, collectively as well as individually. The problem is so massive that in 2018 alone as many as 20 people were killed due to rumour mongering and hate texts.