“O.itemList.length” “- this.config.text.ariaShown
“This.config.text.ariaFermé”
Facebook, Google, Microsoft and Twitter are coming to form a new coalition for the 2020 presidential election, according to a report released Wednesday in the New York Times.
The coalition, which still has a name, will join government agencies like the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security to “counter shared threats that oppose the online public conversation.”
Large generation corporations met with government officials in September to discuss and coordinate security efforts for this year’s elections. Other social media corporations involved in the organization come with LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit, Verizon Media and the Wikimedia Foundation.
Coalition formation is Big Tech’s first collective show of force opposed to virtual interference in the 2020 US election, yet it remains to be noted what kind of moderation policies and efforts will be put in position to combat misinformation on the platform.
At Digital Trends, a coalition spokesman said, “In preparation for the next election, we meet regularly to discuss trends with U.S. government agencies tasked with protecting electoral integrity. In recent years, we have worked hard in combination to counter data operations on our platforms. »
He continued: “Today we hold the latest in a series of meetings with government partners during which we all provide updates on what we see on our respective platforms and what we expect to see in the coming months. Specifically, we discuss arrangements for long-term congresses and the development of scenario plans similar to election results. We will remain vigilant about these issues and meet regularly before the November elections. »
Social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook and Twitter have proven to be a fertile ground for incorrect information to spread widely and quickly. For more than 4 years, following the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal and reports that Russia intervened in the 2016 elections through social media platforms, Big Tech has made combating misinformation one of its main goals.
This year, Twitter announced that it would not run political classified ads on its platform. Facebook and Instagram recently announced that any of the platforms will give users the ability to block the appearance of politically classified ads in their feeds.
But disinformation campaigns and the growing popularity of the far-right conspiracy organization QAnon continue to shake up social media sites and make it difficult to moderate content.