Day: August 16, 2022

A prominent human rights group published a report Monday accusing Facebook of failing to combat election disinformation ads ahead of what is expected to be a tense Brazilian election in October.

Global Witness submitted 10 ads in Brazilian Portuguese to Facebook with election disinformation in a bid to “to test whether Facebook was able to detect outright election disinformation as well as it suggests it can.”

The organization found that it was able to submit ads from outside of Brazil and fund them with non-Brazilian payment methods.

“In total, we submitted 10 Brazilian Portuguese-language ads to Facebook – five containing false election information and five aiming to delegitimize the electoral process,” said the report.

“Alarmingly,” said Global Witness, “all of the election disinformation examples were approved.”

“Given the high stakes nature of the Brazilian election, Facebook is failing in its efforts to adequately protect Brazilians from a disinformation nightmare,” said the report.

Ahead of Brazil’s vote on Oct. 2, many Brazilian observers have raised concerns following far-right President Jair Bolsonaro’s repeated unsupported claims that Brazil’s electronic voting system is vulnerable to fraud.

“The disinformation that Facebook allows on its platform feeds into the ‘stop the steal’ narrative in Brazil – a growing tactic intended to set the stage for contesting the election and risking similar violence as we saw during the January 6th insurrection attempt in the US,” said Jon Lloyd, a senior adviser at Global Witness.

Lloyd alleged that Facebook is aware that the social media “platform is used to spread election disinformation and undermine democracy around the world” and called on it to do “better.”

“It’s not enough to say they’ve hired thousands of content moderators and have invested in AI detection – when clearly these safeguards are failing. They need to show their work,” he said.

“Despite Facebook’s self-proclaimed efforts to tackle disinformation – particularly in high stakes elections – we were appalled to see that they accepted every single election disinformation ad we submitted in Brazil,” Lloyd added.

João Brant, coordinator of the Desinformante platform in Brazil, argued that “this investigation shows that (Facebook parent) Meta prioritizes its profit over the protection of Global South democracies. The company shows its inability to control the use of its platform to spread fake news, and this has a direct negative impact on our democracy.”

Nevertheless, the social media giant has insisted that it has prepared “extensively” for Brazil’s election this year.

In a written statement, Meta said it cannot comment on the findings without access to the full reporting.

“We’ve launched tools that promote reliable information and label election-related posts, established a direct channel for the Superior Electoral Court to send us potentially-harmful content for review, and continue closely collaborating with Brazilian authorities and researchers,” it said.

“Our efforts in Brazil’s previous election resulted in the removal of 140,000 posts from Facebook and Instagram for violating our election interference policies and 250,000 rejections of unauthorized political ads. We are and have been deeply committed to protecting election integrity in Brazil and around the world.”

Brazil’s October election will be the first since Bolsonaro took office in January 2019 as fears persist of potential political violence if the results are contested.

Source: Anadolu Agency

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected a proposal by several European countries for an EU-wide halt to issuing tourist visas to Russian citizens on the sidelines of a meeting Monday in Oslo with the leaders of Nordic countries.

Scholz said it is important to “remember the many refugees who have fled Russia” are Kremlin critics and that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is President Vladimir “Putin’s war” and “not the Russian people’s.”

“It is important to us to understand that there are a lot of people fleeing from Russia because they are disagreeing with the Russian regime,” he added.

Finnish Prime Minister Sanna Marin on the other hand said Russian citizens should not be allowed in the EU as long as the Russian military “kills people in Ukraine.”

Baltic EU members Lithuania and Estonia have already issued a ban on Russian tourist visas and have called on other EU states to follow suit.

Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas tweeted last week that “Visiting #Europe is a privilege, not a human right.” She argued that it is now “time to end tourism from Russia.”

Source: Anadolu Agency