afp_tickers
This content was published in
October 18, 2024 – 09:44
TikTok and Facebook validated advertising pieces that contained misleading statements and falsehoods about the elections in the United States a few weeks before the vote, according to an investigation by an NGO that questioned the rules to detect harmful information on social networks.
The organization Global Witness uploaded eight pieces with false claims to the TikTok, Facebook and YouTube platforms, in order to test them before the November 5 elections.
TikTok “performed the worst” as it allowed four of these ads despite prohibiting ads for political purposes, according to Global Witness, while Facebook approved one of the eight.
“With just a few days left until the close US election race, it is shocking that social media companies continue to endorse blatant and totally discredited disinformation on their platforms,” said Ava Lee, Global Witness’s leader in digital threats in campaigns.
“In 2024, everyone knows the danger of electoral misinformation and how important it is to have quality content moderation,” he added.
“There is no excuse” for these platforms “to continue putting the democratic process at risk,” said Lee.
A TikTok spokesperson told AFP that four of these ads “were wrongly approved in the first phase of moderation” and that the application – belonging to a company based in China – would continue with the ban on political advertising.
A spokesperson for Meta, Facebook’s parent company, questioned the results of the study, saying that it was based on a small sample of advertising pieces and therefore “does not reflect how (Meta) applies our policies at scale.”
YouTube, a Google subsidiary, initially validated half of the pieces and then blocked their publication until an identification document was provided. A “significantly stronger barrier for those who spread disinformation,” considered Global Witness.
Google said on Thursday that it would “temporarily pause ads” dedicated to the US elections after voting closes on November 5, as it did in 2020.
Meta, for its part, announced that it would block any new political advertisement in the last week of the campaign.
ac/jgc/bpe/eml/cjc/val
