The "War Room" on Facebook's Elections Attacks on False Information

Facebook has provided a tightly controlled overview of its war room to the Associated Press and others media before the second round of presidential elections in Brazil on October 28 and the US mid-term elections of November 6. (File)

In a harmless part of Facebook's huge Facebook campus in Silicon Valley, a locked door is marked with a "War Room" sign. The door is a nerve center set up by the social network to fight against false accounts and false information in preparation for the upcoming elections.

In the room, dozens of employees look closely at their screens as the data travels through giant dashboards. On the walls are posters of the type that Facebook frequently uses to warn or urge its employees. It reads: "Nothing on Facebook is the problem of someone else."

This motto might seem ironic to some, given that the War Room was created to counter the threats that almost nobody in the business, starting with CEO Mark Zuckerberg, has seriously Just two years ago, critics of society now consider it a threat to democracy.

A few days after the surprise victory of President Donald Trump, Zuckerberg refuted claims that the outcome was influenced by fictional reports on Facebook. "Quite crazy."

But the wan attitude of Facebook has changed as society's criticism rises in Congress and elsewhere. Later this year, he admitted to having disseminated thousands of advertisements promoting false information placed by Russian agents. Zuckerberg has finally made Facebook's repair his personal challenge for 2018.

The War Room is an important part of Facebook's ongoing repairs. Its technology is based on the artificial intelligence system used by Facebook to help identify "inauthentic" publications and user behavior.

Facebook provided a tightly controlled overview of its war room to the Associated Press and other media before the second round of the presidential election. The elections in Brazil on October 28 and the mid-term elections in the United States on November 6.

"Nothing can replace physical interaction in the real world," said Samidh Chakrabarti, director of elections and civic engagement of Facebook. "What we learned first is how effective it is to get people together in the same room."

More than 20 different teams now coordinate the efforts of more than 20,000 people, mainly subcontractors, dedicated to blocking false accounts. and fictitious news and the end of abuse on Facebook and its other services. As part of the crackdown, Facebook also hired fact checkers, including the Associated Press, to check news posted on its social network.

Facebook credits its war room and its other intensive patrol efforts to start 1.3 billion fake accounts over the past year and hundreds of pages created by foreign governments and other agents seeking to create harm.

But we still do not know if Facebook is doing enough, said Angelo Carusone, president of Media Matters For America, a liberal group that oversees misinformation. He noted that sensational themes in fictional stories can be very effective in keeping people "engaged" on Facebook, allowing more ads to be generated that generate the bulk of Facebook's revenue.

Up to now, this seems to be more an attempt to prevent another public relations disaster than less significant solutions to the problem, "Carusone said. "All in all, I would say that they are still far away."

The Election Warfare Room and its internal workings remain too opaque to determine if it helps Facebook to do a better job of keeping the garbage out of its service or it 's just a matter of. a "A temporary conference room with a multitude of computer screens," said Molly McKew, a researcher skilled in "information warfare" for New Media Frontier, who studies the flow of information. content on social media.

McKew thinks Facebook is in conflict. suspect "of keeping people on their platform by eliciting an emotional response, so they like controversial topics. There will always be a bottom line on deleting radical and insane content because that's what people engage in, and that's what they want. Facebook defends its war room as an effective weapon against misinformation, even though its efforts are still work in progress Chakrabarti, for example, acknowledged that some "bugs" were preventing Facebook from taking unspecified measures to prevent attempts at manipulation in the first round of the Brazilian presidential election earlier this month He refused to develop

The War Room is currently focused on the next round of elections in Brazil and elections to US mid-point: Big American and Brazilian flags hanging on opposite walls and clocks indicate time in both countries.

Facebook refused to let the media scan computer screens in front of employees and asked reporters to refrain from mentioning certain equipment inside. war room, call it "confidential information." During their service, war room workers are only allowed to leave the room for short breaks in the washrooms or to pick up food at their desks.

Although no final decision was made, Katie Harbath, director of global politics and government relations for Facebook, said Katie Harbath

"This is a constant arms race, "said Katie Harbath. "This is our new standard."

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