As studies show, social networks - including Facebook and TikTok - failed to block ads containing obvious misinformation about the US election and protect them from publication. Instead, a high proportion of fake news was waved through and appeared as advertising on the respective platform.

Study deliberately advertises with false information

As the website “Netzpolitik” reports, the non-governmental organizations Global Witness and Cybersecurity for Democracy in a joint study how consistently some online platforms check the accuracy of certain political advertisements and, if necessary, block them. For this purpose , twenty advertising advertisements that intentionally contain false information about the US election on November 8th, 2022 were placed on the platforms in order to then examine how many were actually published.

For the fake advertisements submitted, the scientists used known false information that, among other things, contained incorrect election dates, spoke out against voting by mail or made claims that election results were already certain or could be manipulated. They were written in English and Spanish and published in the states of Arizona, Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

Horrifying results, especially on TikTok

According to their own information, the platforms do not automatically accept advertisements. Instead, these go through multiple AI systems that are trained to detect and block misinformation or recurring patterns. People are also involved in this moderation process to ensure an even better result.

Depending on network policies, a decision about publication would then be made. When it comes to political topics, particularly strict rules apply to all networks tested, according to their own standards.

But according to the study, all of the ads placed contradicted the platforms' specifications: On TikTok, it reveals a serious deficiency in the moderation process, as an astonishing 18 out of 20 fake ads, a rate of 90%, were published. This is despite a new ban on political advertising via official accounts of governments, politicians and parties. “TikTok performed the worst of all platforms,” according to the study.

But there is definitely some catching up to do on Facebook too, because here too, 25% or five out of 20 advertisements were published. These also include more than implausible theories, such as you have to vote twice or be vaccinated in order to take part. Overall that there could be manipulation in the upcoming election are confirmed

YouTube, on the other hand, was convincing in the study

The Alphabet subsidiary YouTube performed surprisingly positively in the study. All ads were blocked and the channel that wanted to place the ads was also closed.

Contributor Laura Edelson comments: “YouTube’s performance in our experiment shows that it is not impossible to detect harmful election disinformation.” YouTube's success was surprising because the platform had waved through all ads containing false information a similar investigation in Brazil a month ago

Apparently national differences in platform moderation

These different results on YouTube suggest that there are national differences in how advertising content is reviewed on its platform. Facebook's efforts also showed clear differences. While most ads were blocked in the United States, Facebook published 100% of fake ads in Brazil, Myanmar, Ethiopia and Kenya, just like hate speech .

Reactions and criticism

After publishing the study results, TikTok thanked you for the “feedback” that helped “continuously improve our processes and policies.” Facebook largely opposed the results, arguing that the small sample of ads placed by the scientists was not representative enough. The review of content also takes place in a multi-stage process and continues even after it has been published.

The investigators argue contrary to the reactions: “Like Facebook, TikTok must also recognize that protecting democracy is not optional: it is part of the cost of doing business.” Furthermore, they demand sufficient information from all 3 platforms about how incoming advertisements are handled internally and how comprehensively they are actually checked. According to the scientists, science and the public depend on transparency in order to hold the platforms accountable based on their own standards.

source

Netzpolitik
Summary of findings: TikTok and Facebook fail to detect election disinformation in the US, while YouTube succeeds

Author: Nick L.

Also read: Facebook phishing! Be careful of sites that tag you


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