SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook is stepping up its efforts to ensure it is not used as a tool to interfere in politics and democracies around the world ahead of the 2020 US election.

The efforts outlined Monday include a special security tool for elected officials and candidates that monitors their accounts for hacking attempts such as login attempts from unusual locations or unverified devices.

Facebook said Monday it will also label state-controlled media as such, label fact-checks more clearly and invest USD 2 million in media literacy projects.

The company also announced it has removed four networks of fake, state-backed misinformation-spreading accounts based in Russia and Iran.

These networks sought to disrupt elections in the US, North Africa, and Latin America, the company said. In the past year, Facebook said it has taken down 50 such clusters of accounts, a sign that efforts to use its services to disrupt elections are not letting up.

“Elections have changed significantly since 2016 and Facebook has too,” CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a conference call Monday.

The social network was caught embarrassingly off guard during the 2016 election, having let others use its platform to spread misinformation, manipulate voters and meddle with democracy.

Facebook is under fire from presidential candidates, lawmakers and regulators and privacy advocates around the world for problems ranging from election security to alleged anti-competitive behavior, privacy violations and what many see as its outsized, often negative influence on society.

It’s under several antitrust investigations in the US.

The scrutiny from all sides has been ramping up since the 2016 elections. Getting it right in 2020 — or at least preventing a disaster — is crucial for the company.
But even if nothing goes terribly wrong, Facebook’s efforts are unlikely to mollify politicians and regulators concerned about its clout.

As part of its efforts to clamp down on misinformation, Facebook said it will add more prominent labels on debunked posts on Facebook as well as on Instagram. It will put labels on top of what is deemed “false” and “partly false” photos and videos.

But Facebook will continue to allow politicians to run ads containing misinformation.

(Agencies)