From March to mid-October, Facebook removed more than 135,000 pieces of content in the United States.
New Delhi:
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the measures taken by the social media giant have helped protect the integrity of more than 200 different elections around the world, including India, and have also played an important role in stopping abuse before the US election.
Noting that next week is sure to be a “test” for Facebook, Zuckerberg said the company will continue to “fight to protect the integrity of the democratic process”.
“These are all changes we have made over the past four years – and they have helped us protect the integrity of over 200 different elections around the world, including in the EU, India and Indonesia . And they were important in putting an end to the abuse ahead of next week’s US vote, “Zuckerberg said during the company’s earnings call and described some of the steps that have been taken. .
He added that the company has focused on issues such as voter suppression and has worked closely with experts in the field, including civil rights leaders.
Facebook’s security teams were looking for traditional threats like hacking four years ago, but what they ended up seeing was something new – coordinated interference campaigns, using fake accounts, that attempted to spread disinformation and discord, he said.
“Since then, we’ve built the world‘s most advanced systems to detect and remove these threats, and it shows in the numbers. In the years since, we have removed more than 100 networks, including from Russia, Iran, and China, and we block millions of potentially abusive accounts every day, ”Zuckerberg said.
Zuckerberg explained that the company has taken steps to make advertisements transparent and anyone wishing to run a political or social advertisement must first go through their authorization process.
Between March and September, the company rejected the ads 2.2 million times before they could be served for attempting to target the United States without permission. For political and social ads, Facebook allows users to see who paid for the ad and what audience it reached, in order to make political advertising on the platform more transparent.
“Our policies prohibit false statements about when and how to vote and content intended to intimidate people into not showing up at polling stations, for example by claiming that ICE will be there. And we’ve recently expanded these policies to include implied false statements, like for example, claims that you will get Covid by voting in person, ”he said.
From March to mid-October, Facebook removed more than 135,000 pieces of content in the United States for breaking these rules, he added.
“Electoral integrity is and will be an ongoing challenge … I also know that our work does not end after November 3. We will therefore continue to anticipate new threats by evolving our approach and fighting to protect the ‘integrity of the democratic process and the right of people to have their voices heard around the world,’ said Mt Zuckerberg.
Facebook saw its total revenue increase 22% to $ 21.4 billion in the September quarter, while its net profit was $ 7.8 billion.
Its Daily Active User Base (DAU) averaged 1.82 billion, while its Monthly Active User Base (MAU) was 2.74 billion as of September 30, 2020.
Mr. Zuckerberg also spoke about the interoperability between the Facebook family of apps (WhatsApp and Instagram) that allows users to send messages between apps.
“We started to roll out interoperability between Messenger and Instagram messaging, and this is present in many countries around the world, including the United States … The big advantage – the way I think about it is that in many countries around the world, there is one main messaging app that most people use, ”he said.
He added that the messaging experience in the United States is very fragmented compared to what one would experience in India, China, Brazil or countries in Europe.
“So our goal is to make sure that users can just choose one of our apps that they prefer to use the most for messaging and can reach all the people they want to reach across all of our different apps, whatever whichever app is their favorite. And of course, they can continue to use more than one if they wish, “he said.
Facebook has over 300 million users in India, while its group company, WhatsApp, has over 400 million users in the country. Earlier this year, Facebook signed an agreement to buy a 9.99% stake in the Jio platforms run by Mukesh Ambani for Rs 43,574 crore. Companies are also using WhatsApp to deliver products from local Kirana stores through JioMart.
(Except for the title, this story was not edited by GalacticGaming staff and is posted from a syndicated feed.)
