Facebook Exhibits ‘War Room’ for Controlling Information Ahead of Midterm Elections
Facebook Exhibits ‘War Room’ for Controlling Information Ahead of Midterm Elections
October 18, 2018
Lucas Nolan
Now, CNN has been given access to the Facebook War Room, providing an insight into how the company is preparing for the next round of elections. CNN reports:
The company says it has hired thousands of new moderators, invested in artificial intelligence, enlisted the help of former US intelligence officials, and brought in new rules for political advertising — all in an effort to tackle a misinformation crisis.
Samidh Chakrabarti, Facebook’s director of elections and head of civic engagement, told CNN that the war room was “really the culmination of two years of massive investments we’ve made both in people and technology to ensure that our platforms are safe and secure for elections. So it builds upon work that we’ve done to crack down on fake accounts, on combating the spread of fake news on our platforms.”
According to Chakrabarti, a “chain of command” has been developed at Facebook to report issues relating to the election which goes all the way up to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg:
In most cases the company’s moderators and team leaders make decisions about content that may violate the platform’s policy, Chakrabarti said. However, if an issue arises that is “particularly nuanced,” it may be considered by the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg.
“We’ve established a chain of command all the way up to Mark and Sheryl to be able to weigh in on the most consequential things,” he said.
The AFP also published a video showing the inner workings of the Facebook War Room:
VIDEO: In Facebook's "War Room," a nondescript space adorned with American and Brazilian flags, a team of 20 people monitors computer screens for signs of suspicious activity pic.twitter.com/cfuFl6wAUa
— AFP news agency (@AFP) October 18, 2018
It would appear that Facebook is taking controlling information seriously following Sandberg and Zuckerberg’s appearances before Congress to discuss election interference and the security of their platform, but given the recent number of security issues and bugs that the site has faced, the company will have to work hard to avoid any future issues.
https://www.breitbart.com/tech/2018/...erm-elections/
