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Facebook and the Brazilian government fought to counter misinformation. Earlier this year, the country's federal police set up a task force to limit the influence of false news. Judge Luiz Fux, who oversaw Brazil's highest electoral court, argued that it might be wise to limit freedom of expression in order to protect the integrity of elections.
The experts, however, are skeptical about the possibility of stopping misinformation before the elections.
"Even if it is ordered to fine a person who disseminates false information, the elections are over," said Fernando Neisser, who coordinates the Brazilian Academy of Electoral and Political Law. "Nobody is willing to handle the speed and volume of this problem of false information."
Facebook has set up a "War Room" on its Menlo Park, California campus, allowing teams at all levels of the organization to react quickly to attacks and misinformation campaigns in real time.
Samidh Chakrabarti, who heads the elections and Facebook's civic engagement team, said the new configuration had been helpful. A number of attempts to eliminate voters and hate speech targeting specific geographic areas were canceled in a matter of hours, he said.
WhatsApp tests changes made to the operation of its service. It has reduced the number of user messages that can be transmitted from 256 to 20. (In India, the limit is set at five.) And WhatsApp launched an advertising campaign in print, on television and at the radio in Brazil to reach about 50 million people. with tips on how to detect misinformation.
WhatsApp is also working with Comprova, a consortium of Brazilian media organizations, to verify thousands of tips for suspicious information and to verify real facts. The group has received over 100,000 messages for the veterinarian. "Fato or Fake", the information project, examined more than 700 information.
"If the desire to disseminate and consume sensational, sometimes damaging information is prior to the Internet, that certainly makes things easier," Chris Daniels, vice president of WhatsApp, told an editorial in a Brazilian newspaper on Wednesday. "Because the information, good and bad, can become viral on WhatsApp even with these limitations, we have the responsibility to amplify them and mitigate the damage."
