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More and more generations met with government agencies on Wednesday to combat misinformation on social media.
By Mike Isaac and Kate Conger
SAN FRANCISCO – Facebook, Google and other primary-generation corporations said Wednesday that they had added new partners and met with government agencies in their efforts to secure the November election.
The group, which seeks to avoid the kind of online interference and foreign interference that desecrated the 2016 presidential election, in the past consisted of some of the major social media companies, adding Twitter and Microsoft in addition to Facebook and Google. Among the new participants is the Wikimedia Foundation.
The organization met Wednesday with representatives from agencies such as the F.B.I., the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the Department of Homeland Security for percentage of data on disdata campaigns and the emergence of misleading habits in their departments.
Discussions between generation corporations and government agencies have taken positions periodically over the more than 4 years. While some corporations have become accustomed to sharing clues about disinformation campaigns and election threats, efforts have been random. The effort has expanded in the run-up to the November elections, and corporations and generation agencies have tried to coordinate more frequently.
“In preparation for the next election, we meet to discuss trends with U.S. government agencies tasked with protecting the integrity of elections,” a spokesman for the organization said in a statement. “In recent years, we have worked hard in combination to counteract data operations on our platforms.”
The organization arose from meetings that began between generation corporations and government agencies last fall. Since then, companies have taken steps to avoid threats in elections around the world. Facebook, for example, has monitored electoral behavior in Brazil, Mexico, Germany and France. Last year, the social network said it strengthened the way it verified which teams and others were doing political advertising on their site.
At Wednesday’s meeting, the organization and agencies informed others about the illegal behavior and activities that corporations were observing on their platforms.
“We discussed arrangements for the upcoming conventions and drawing up scenario plans similar to election results,” the group’s spokesman said. “We will remain vigilant about these problems and meet before the November election.”
In addition to the Wikimedia Foundation, the organization has expanded to join LinkedIn, Pinterest, Reddit and Verizon Media. Government participants also come with the Infrastructure Security and Cyber Security Agency and the Department of Justice’s National Security Division.
Several social media corporations have reported an increase in disinformation efforts in the run-up to the election. Last month, Twitter removed thousands of accounts that sold QAnon’s conspiracy theory. This week, NBC News reported that millions of members of the QAnon conspiracy theory were hidden on personal teams and Facebook pages.
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