Posted on by Najihah Nasrin
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Apart from Tik Tok, Meta to allow political advertising for GE15
21 Oct
Facebook and Instagram owned by Silicon Valley tech titan Meta are allowing their various platforms for political purposes in conjunction with the15th general election (GE15), but with the limitation of all advertisements posted to be made public.
However, Tik Tok, known as a platform, used to share fun videos has disallowed any type of political advertising that goes against their general purpose.
Meta’s head of politics and government outreach in Asia-Pacific Roy Tan stated that these election campaigns will not only allow big parties but smaller ones to engage with their voters.
He stated that all political advertisements would be placed in an “Ad Library” to ensure that they are transparent and that everyone will be able to see who commissioned them in order to prevent clickbait and sensational posts that violate Meta’s standards and guidelines.
“The reason we’re accepting political advertising is based on the principle that people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, so they can decide who they want to vote for. We have also heard from small campaigners saying accepting advertising allows them a voice.
“We have a three-step strategy by first removing any content that violates community guidelines, reducing distribution of low quality and false news and removing the ability to monetise said content. The third step is to give the public some context to the information shared so they can decide for themselves if to trust and share it. he added
This is to further keep people in the loop with political advertisements so that they can make informed decisions on polling day as stated by Meta. In Malaysia, advertisements must include “Paid for by” disclaimers and undergo an authorization procedure.
The Ad Library will also contain political or election-related advertisements running in Malaysia. This way, people can see what ads are running, who saw them, and how much was spent on them.
Meta claimed in its Quarterly Adversarial Threat report that the fake account network also promoted the police and posted memes in Malay language in support of the current government coalition and an attempt to portray its critics as corrupt.
According to Meta, its investigation revealed a connection between these accounts and the Malaysian police. Roy said that Meta couldn’t say much about these claims or whether it had discovered any additional troll farms.
In addition, TikTok produced educational TikTok videos that give members of its community the tools they need to become better digital citizens.
It also made it simple for users to report misleading content directly through its app.
TikTok said they didn’t mind the revenue loss, which would be greatest during an election campaign, as long as the content was true and entertaining.
“We’d rather invest in the system. The battle against misinformation is never ending. From an election standpoint we want to ensure we’re a credible space,” they added.
On November 19, 2022, Malaysia will head to the polls, and all political parties will use social media to spread information and party manifestos.
